No Greater Love
by Jaenelle Angelline
Summary: Chapter 11 revised. FINISHED. CAUTION, Ch. 10 and 11 rated R for content! VERY VIOLENT! Sequel to 'Where The Heart Is' and continues in 'Love Lights Your Way'. Read and review all, please, and thank you!
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1: Moose

Logan stirred, opened his eyes. The TV was still blaring away in front of him; Lethal Weapon 4, from the looks of it. He and Jubilee had discovered that they both liked action movies, and had settled in to watch the Lethal Weapon movie marathon on TV. He'd apparently fallen asleep, and she'd probably gotten bored and wandered off. He switched off the TV and got out of bed, yawning.

He and Jubes had changed rooms a week ago, moving into a large room beside Scott and Jean's. It was much more comfortable now, and it kept the other residents of the mansion from getting an eyeful of Jubilee in a robe rushing to his room to find something she'd left there. All their stuff was now in one room. It was good for her, but a constant source of exasperation to him. Before Jubilee, his room had been plain, simple, almost Spartan in its simplicity. Now there were books, papers, physics texts, loose pens and pencils and notebooks piled haphazardly all over the desk she'd insisted she needed, and perfumes, makeup, and other girl's toiletries cluttering the top of the dresser. He shook his head now as he pulled on a pair of jeans and fastened the button. Her lab space was almost obsessively neat; her living space—and his—was something else entirely. At least she was neat about her clothes; there were no more clothing items scattered about the room as there had when she was a teenager.

He wandered out into the hall and down the stairs; and then even further down, to the lab. It was dark; Hank, he'd heard earlier, was playing pool with Bobby and Remy in the rec room. On a hunch, he retraced his steps to the rec room, and sure enough, there was Jubilee, bent over the pool table, frowning, intent on making her shot. She was still wearing the clothes she'd been wearing earlier; a short skirt and a low-cut black cropped top. It showed him a generous amount of cleavage when he looked down the front of her top. And when she got up, strolled around the table and bent again to poke the white cue ball at the six ball, the back of her skirt lifted just the tiniest bit and he saw a peek of black lace briefs.

"Six in the corner pocket," she said confidently, and sure enough, the six clacked into the corner pocket by Remy's beer a second later. She grinned as Bobby groaned.

Logan stepped up to the pool table. Since they never played for money, there had at first been a steady trade in personal possessions. Then one night Scott had rashly bet Jean's emerald pendant and lost it. Jean had had a few choice words to say to him about that (even after Remy had returned it to her, having never seriously meant to keep it). Directly after that Jean and Betsy had gone out and got a lot of different-colored poker chips. 

He studied the shrinking pile of chips in front of Remy, Bobby, and Hank, and the huge pile in front of Jubilee, and grinned at the other two men. "Looks like she's takin' ya ta the cleaners," he smirked. Bobby groaned at his grin and waved a hand despairingly at his tiny pile. 

"Logan, do something about her! I'm losing everything here!"

Jubilee edged a hip up atop the edge of the pool table, took a sip of her beer, and grinned. "Maybe you'll think twice about insulting one of my papers next time, then," she said with a poisonously sweet smile.

"Now, now," Hank said genially from where he sat on a substantially-built stool in the corner, sipping another bottle, "Exaggeration does not become you, Bobby; you haven't lost everything just yet. Though," he said after getting off his stool and looking at Bobby's pile of chips and Jubilee's mountain, "you may not be so far off the mark there. Jubilee, where did you learn to play so well?"

Jubilee grinned as she tossed her empty bottle in the trashcan. "Cleaning out the frat houses back at college," she said, "And from losing a few games over at Rex's, over on Eighth Street. I was just lucky I move faster than Moose, there. Or I'd have had a really big problem." 

Logan's jaw dropped at that revelation, and he tapped her shoulder. She spun around, and from the look on her face, she hadn't meant to inform him of that particular incident. 

"You went to Rex's?" Logan growled. "When?"

She bit her lip. "Uh…"

Logan growled. The other three men took a nervous look at Logan, at Jubilee's pink cheeks, and decided there was somewhere else they absolutely had to be at just that moment. Neither Logan nor Jubilee saw them leave.

Jubilee bit her lip and studied her toes. "The first time was when I came home for a visit before flying out to the summit in Geneva," she said. "You weren't home that time. I was looking for a little excitement and I found Rex's." She looked at him with her best pitiful-puppy look in her eyes, and he groaned inwardly. He could never resist her when she made those eyes.

"So when'd you meet Moose?" he asked her. Max 'Moose' Montgomery was a huge brute of a man, almost seven feet tall, probably a good three hundred pounds. And not a fat three hundred pounds, either. It was all muscle. Logan had tangled with him several times, and he was no joke. He winced to think of Jubilee going up against the behemoth.

"We played a couple games of pool," Jubilee said, trying to suppress a giggle and failing. "I pulled the shots on my first couple of games, till he thought I was just another wannabe. Then I took him to the cleaners completely on our next game with a couple of professional trick shots. He took offense at that, and took a swing at me. I ducked, and his fist bashed in the face of a guy who was standing behind me. In the fuss that followed, I slipped out the side door. The next time I went there he played against me again, and I cleaned him out again--"

Logan's jaw dropped. "There was a next game? Moose must be gettin' soft!"

Jubilee threw her head back and laughed so hard she fell off the ledge onto the pool table's felt, dislodging the eight ball and sending it into the side pocket. "After I got done with him, there was this other guy, a lot rougher-looking, who challenged me. So I played him, and cleaned him out too. The second guy tried to nail me with a fist, but Moose knocked him out. We were both on the same side of the bar fight that time." She grinned at him unrepentantly. "We're great friends now. He's really a softie, Logan. When I told him why I was cleaning everyone out, he and I paired up for a week straight, hitting all the local pool halls and challenging everyone we could find. I wanted to split the take, but he insisted I take it all. Didn't you wonder how I got the money to get your saddlebags?"

Logan growled and grabbed her arms, pushing her backward down onto the pool table and burying his face in her neck. She giggled and wriggled her hips against his, and all thought fled his head, to be replaced with one driving desire. 

Some time later, Jubilee sat up. "Hey, Logan," she poked him in the ribs.

He opened one eye.

She giggled, and kissed the tip of his nose. "It's only ten, and I'm sure Lethal Weapon Four is over. Wanna go to Rex's with me? Moose has been dying to meet you."

"He's met me," Logan groaned, lying back and closing his eyes again. "Oh, he's met me, a'right. Or at leas' his fist has. Met my ribs, met my arm, met my shoulderbone, met my back…Jubes, he's met me, a' right."

She giggled. "Let me rephrase that. He wants to meet, and I'm quoting him here, 'the poor sumbitch who's got the steel balls to take on someone like you'. He doesn't know you by name. I don't think you ever bothered to tell him that." She kissed him again, nibbled on his earlobe. He loved that; it sent these little shivers up and down his spine. "Please," she whispered, breathing gently into his ear. "Afterward we can--" she whispered quietly in his ear. 

His eyes flew open. "Hol' that thought, darlin'," he said, sitting up and sliding off the table. "Lemme go get dressed. Remy's got the pickup for the night already; off with that dancer girlfriend o' his again, so we have to take my bike. Ya game f'r that?"

She grinned too. "Okay. Let me get dressed too."

He got the barest glimpse of something black and then something sparkly disappearing into their bathroom with her, but he didn't ask. As he was buckling his belt, he heard a low, feminine giggle coming from the room beside theirs; Jean's giggle. Then a masculine groan. Logan rolled his eyes. There was little doubt what Jean and Scott were doing; he wished they would be a bit more discreet. He'd brought the subject up to Jubilee one morning after Jean had gone down to cook breakfast, and she'd said, "Hmm. Let me see what I can think of." She hadn't said anything after that. Logan was going nuts. Jubilee wasn't really noisy in bed. She panted, she'd moan, but she wasn't really vocal. Neither was he. Jean and Scott, though…

All thought abruptly fled his mind when Jubilee came out of the bathroom. She was wearing a pair of boot cut leather pants that fit like a glove over her thighs and calves, and an eye-catching spaghetti-strap gold-sequined top that showed off her upper story quite nicely. She dug a pair of calf-high heeled black leather boots out of the closet, bent and laced them up, straightened her pants, and looked at him expectantly. "Are we going?"

"Yeah." He said. "Yeah, we're going." She led the way out to the garage, and he lagged behind, mostly to catch eyefuls of her backside encased in that tight black leather. He was glad they'd had the rec room to themselves earlier, or he wouldn't be able to control himself now.

***

Rex's was noisy, unusually so for a Thursday night. Logan pulled off his helmet and coat, watched Jubilee do the same, and then she scanned the room for anyone she knew.

"Hey! It's da little Lady!" came a booming voice from off to their left, and there was Moose, stomping up to them. He wasn't really stomping…it just seemed that way when you had a man who was six feet eight and three hundred pounds walking over stained wooden floorboards toward you. He grabbed Jubilee in a big bear hug, nearly engulfing her petite figure in his huge arms, and boomed, "How ya been, little Lady!"

"Fine," Jubilee said, grinning, her voice muffled in his heavily-tattooed arms, "As soon's you stop that!" He was ruffling her long hair into a messy mop. He put her down, not looking the least bit repentant, and squinted into the shadows by the door where Logan was lurking. 

"Who you brung with ya this time?" he said to her. "Not the annoying Frenchy again, didja?"

Jubilee paused in the middle of smoothing her hair. "Moose! I toldja 'bout that! He's a friend of mine! Show some respect, willya?" she swatted the big arm none too gently.

To Logan's surprise, the big man backed down. If it had been anyone else, they'd probably have gotten thrown halfway across the room, but Jubilee didn't seem to see anything wrong with smacking a guy who would have made three of her. Probably more, Logan thought, as he stepped into the light.

The entire bar got really quiet. So did Moose. In one quick move, he had Logan's throat in one big hand and had Logan pinned against the wall. "This creep botherin' ya, Lady?" he said, his voice dangerously quiet. Everyone tensed.

Jubilee balled her fist and smacked it into his bicep. "Put him down, Moose!" she cried indignantly. "Thoughtcha said any friend of mine would be welcome here!"

"He's a friend of yours?" Moose didn't let Logan go, although his grip loosened a bit.

"Who do you think I was tryin' to get those saddlebags for, huh? You didn't think I'd fall for one of those soft little milquetoast boys at college, didja?" She smacked him again. "Now put him down and come look at what I bought with all that money we won."

Moose lowered Logan to the floor, and gave a half-hearted tug at Logan's now hopelessly wrinkled shirt. "Sorry, dude," he said. "The little Lady over there's a friend o' mine. Wanna make sure she gets someone worthy o' her, since I don't seem to be her type." He said it almost wistfully, and Logan was sure his jaw was going to end up in the basement. Moose was acting like Jubilee's big brother.

He and Moose went way back, for quite a few years, in fact. They'd tangled with each other many times in a lot of bars over the years; gotten themselves kicked out of many of them. It was odd, looking at him square now and not swinging at him; Jubilee had to be magic if she could get the big man to forget the long-standing feud between them.

Jubilee led Moose and half the bar outside to Logan's bike, where they all examined the fine leather saddlebags Jubilee had bought for Logan in Italy. His heart had nearly stopped when he saw them; fine grain, perfect black leather, butter soft but durable. Jubilee smiled at the plainly impressed Moose, and threw an arm around his waist, which was pretty much all she could reach of him. "Got him and me both the jackets to match, and look at the helmets!" she produced the two black motorcycle helmets with three silver slashes on either side, and he duly admired them before she put them back in the bags.

Moose patted her shoulder. "Still think ya could do better, Lady, but I'll be honest, I'd rather seeya with this 'un here--" he jerked a head at Logan, "than with that Frenchy. Or that big black dude who hit on ya the last time you was here; what was his name? Well, whoever he was, he wasn't right for you either. Hope I never see him again." He stopped, his attention caught by a man passing the crowd going into the bar. "Hey, Mickey!" he hailed him. "Here's the little Lady I was talkin' about who can beat the pants offa ya in pool!"

Mickey, a swarthy short guy with more tattoos than bare skin, sauntered up and looked Jubilee appraisingly. "Ya sure, Moose?" he said, frowning doubtfully. "She don't look like she knows what end of the pool stick is up." Logan growled, surprised when Moose did the same. "Try her and see," Moose said. "Jubes! Ya up to a game o' pool? Mickey here says ya don't hardly know what end of the sticks's the business end!"

Jubilee put her hands on her hips and looked at Mickey. "From where I'm standing, he don't look like he knows that either," she challenged him. "Ya game?"

"Yeah, I'm game." They all went back into the bar and Logan sat at the bar, ordering a beer as Jubilee headed for the pool tables in the corner with the new guy. Moose installed them at a table with a crowd of watchers, then sat down on the stool next to Logan. Both men regarded each other for a moment.

"So you're the dude who stole her heart," Moose said finally. Logan nodded. Moose grinned, suddenly, unexpectedly, and Logan grinned back. "I tell ya somethin, dude, ya got yerself a handful there. I hope ya got da balls to handle her, cause she's got some sass in her." He took a swig of his beer and said, "What's your name, anyway? Y'know, all these years we been beatin' the crap outta each other, an' I never knew yer name."

"Logan," Logan said, holding out a hand. "Just don't break the wrist this time, huh?"

Moose howled with laughter, causing a few heads to turn. "Naw, wouldn' do that now," he said, choking. "She'd break my wrists in return!"

Logan had never been one for small talk, but he found himself getting engrossed in conversation with this man he'd considered an enemy before. They were in the middle of a friendly but heated argument about the performance of their bikes when a woman's angry voice cut through the noise in the var. Logan spun. It was Jubilee's voice.

Jubilee made a face as the big man pressed up against her. He smelled terrible, and she shoved at him. "Out of my way."

He grabbed her arm. "Look here, we got a pussy in here tryin' to grow some balls," he said scornfully. He grabbed her cue stick and tossed it aside. "Got a better stick right here," he said, pressing his hips against hers. "Wanna use this, girlie-girl?"

Jubilee shoved at him. He refused to budge. She shoved harder. No movement. "Get out of my face," she snorted irritably. "And gimme my cue."

"Got your cue right here," he said, leaned over her, and kissed her.

Jubilee groped behind her, feeling for that three ball she had left….there! Her hand closed on it, and she brought it around, slamming it into the side of his head. He swore explosively and stumbled back, shaking his head to clear it. "That's it, girl," he said. "You gone and made me mad!" He lunged for her. She slipped aside easily. He lunged for her again. Again she ducked to the side.

He lunged for her again. This time, as she slipped off to the side, he lunged sideways and caught her, slinging her into the pool table. Jubilee faced him, spitting mad. Her eyes flicked sideways…Logan and Moose were over by the bar.

She groped backward, felt the cool length of another pool cue behind her, and wrapped her hands around it. "Come to Daddy, little girl," the man said, leaning in close. Jubilee whipped the pool cue around and jabbed it hard into his middle. "Suck my stick!" she hollered at him. She'd gotten it off some movie or other, she couldn't remember which one, but it seemed appropriate.

At the bar, she saw Logan's head whip around at the sound of her scream, and he slid off the stool and started coming over, followed closely by Moose. Then she had no more time to check up on him, because her assailant was coming at her again.

He ripped the cue stick from her hands and swung it at her. She was just the fraction of a second too slow, and the butt of the stick caught her across her temple. Her body spun away from the blow, and she caught herself on the table. She was shaking her head to clear it when his weight came crushing down on top of her, driving the breath from her lungs and pressing her hips against the edge. He tangled a hand in her hair and slammed her forehead into the table, once, twice. She was dizzy from the impact and ready to pass out when suddenly the weight was gone from on top of her. She slid limply towards the floor, then was caught by a pair of gentle hands and strong arms, and cradled there as she tried to clear her head. 

Moose roared in anger as the man pinned Jubilee down to the table and slammed her head down on its surface. He stormed across the room, shoving people out of his way if they didn't move fast enough, and Logan followed. The big man grabbed Jubilee's assailant off her, and Logan caught her limp body as it slid toward the floor. She lay, shaking her head dazedly, as Logan crouched over her ready for trouble. But Moose was on a roll, and Logan, watching him, thought there wouldn't be a whole lot of trouble left for him to get into.

Moose buried his huge fists into the other man's stomach again and again, as the man grunted, gasped, and tried to get away. "No one hurts our little Lady, y'hear?" he snarled, not even out of breath as he continued to pummel the man. "Now apologize!" He grabbed a handful of the man's hair and shoved it up toward Logan and Jubilee, who by now had recovered enough to sit up. 

"S-s-s-sorry," the man gasped out. Moose shook his head harder. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry I insulted you! Really!" he was almost blubbering when Moose yanked him back up, dragged him over to the door, and threw the man one-handed out into the parking lot. 

"And don't come back!" Moose slammed the door hard enough to make the building shake, dusted his hands off, and came back to where Logan was helping Jubilee stand. He pushed her hair off her forehead. "Oooh, that looks nasty. Little Lady, I think you better git on home. You gonna have a whale of a friggin' headache from what that little sucka done to you."

Jubilee tried to smile, although her head was aching ferociously. "You been through worse," she said.

"Yeah, but I ain't you, little Lady," he said. "You're made of finer stuff than rough ol' me. So Logan, get her home, take care of her, and I guess I'll see you both again some time." He leaned over, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and showed them both to the door. Logan pulled her coat over her shoulders and helped her get up on the back of the bike. "Let's go, Jubes," he said. 


	2. Party

Chapter 2: Party

Jean _tsked _and looked disapprovingly at Jubilee the next morning, but they were all too busy getting ready for the Halloween party that night for her to say anything. Directly after breakfast, Jubilee and Logan went back upstairs to check out each other's costumes. That was where Remy found them when he came in later that morning.

Remy knocked on Logan and Jubilee's door. "Hey, you guys in dere?" he said when there was no answer. He pressed his ear against the door, could swear that he heard a giggle, and knocked again. "Jubes? Logan?"

The door flew open at his third knock, and he was greeted by the sight of Jubilee in a Japanese kimono. Logan was dressed in the male version, and both were flushed and laughing. Remy grinned. "Halloween costumes?" he raised an eyebrow.

Jubilee grinned. "Yeah, I'm trying to find something that fits," she said. "The stuff I used to wear doesn't fit anymore." She bounced over to him. "What's this?" she tugged at the packet he held in his hand.

"Got those pictures developed, p'tite," he said. "Thought Logan might wan' see what dat dress look like before Sabretooth happen to it."

Logan took the picture as Jubilee looked through the rest of the packet. "Hey, Remy! Isn't this Elise, your dancer girlfriend?" 

"Mmm-hmm." Jubilee studied the picture. 

"She's awfully pretty, Remy. And good lord, I didn't know that could be done with the human body!" She showed Logan the picture, which was of a slim Asian girl doing splits, dressed in the ubiquitous black leotard and pink tights of a dancer. What Jubilee was looking at was the way the girl had bent her upper body backwards and grabbed her rear ankle with her hands. Logan blinked, looked pained.

"Hurts jus' lookin' at it." He looked back down at the picture he held in his hand. It had been taken in the garage, from the looks of the background, and a slender beautiful woman dressed in a rich wine velvet dress smiled back from the photo. "Jubes…you look beautiful. I'm so sorry the dress got ruined. An' I'm sorry I missed it." He kissed her as she nuzzled his neck, and asked Remy, "You min' if I keep this?"

"Not at all, go ahead," Remy said, not mentioning that he'd gotten double prints and had a duplicate tucked away with the rest of his souvenirs. 

Jubilee stuffed the rest of the pictures back in the envelope and handed it back to him. "So what are you wearing? And are you going to bring Elise to the party?"

Xavier had informed the mansion's residents that they were free to throw a Halloween party, and usually they were allowed to bring dates with them. Remy had asked Elise if she would come, but she'd declined regretfully, saying there was a performance that evening and she wouldn't be able to attend. He'd pouted a little, but she'd been firm, and he'd sighed as he left her. Being a dancer was hard, time-consuming work. When she wasn't with him, she was rehearsing, in class, or practicing. She was dedicated to her dancing. He admired her devotion but sometimes wished she had a little more time to spend with him. 

"Non, de p'tite can' t make it," he said regretfully. "She have a performance tonight. Remy got a costume for her, but she not goin' to be dere. What Remy wearin' gon' be a s'prise, p'tite, so don' ask."

After he'd gone Jubilee sat down on the bed and opened the kimono to reveal the costume she'd actually been wearing before Remy had knocked. Logan looked at her, and had to suppress his urges again, because she was wearing a man's white button-up shirt and a pleated gray and red plaid skirt. The skirt was _very_ short indeed, and there was a pair of frilly white lace knickers to go underneath. As long as she stayed upright, nothing would show, but the minute she bent over…he swallowed. "Jubes, please don' wear that ta the party," he said desperately.

Her eyes twinkled as she looked at him. "Why not?" she asked innocently.

The little tease. She knew why. Logan contemplated her position sitting on the end of the bed; she was close…he could grab her and turn her over his knee and show her what little schoolgirls got for being bad…

She looked at the wicked glint in his eye and shifted on the bed, taking herself and her backside out of his reach. He rolled his eyes and gave up that idea. "No, Jubes, please, really," he said. "I don' want Bobby or Remy ta be seein' everythin' I got."

Jubilee kissed him. "I wouldn't do that to you," she said. He kissed her back, feeling relieved. Not that he thought she would actually wear something that revealing, but with Jubilee's unpredictability, you sort of never knew.

She folded the kimono and put it back in its tissue-lined box, took off the little-girl outfit, and dressed in her regular clothes. "I'm gonna go see what Jean's wearing," she said, and skipped off.

Jean was alone in the bedroom when Jubilee came in. She gave the younger girl a reproachful look and pouted. "Scott's all out of sorts this morning from last night," she said. "Did you and Logan have to pick that particular way to annoy him?"

Jubilee collapsed on the bed, laughing. Jean stood over her, hands on her hips, trying to look stern and failing because her lips kept twitching upward in a smile. Jubilee tried to get herself back under control, but only succeeded in making herself laugh harder as she saw Jean trying to look stern. Finally Jean broke and sat down on the bed beside her as they both laughed. 

Jubilee clutched her sides. Last night, when Scott and Jean had started making noises again, she and Logan had started making their own noises, in a parody of the couple in the other room. They'd been deliberately loud enough so Scott and Jean could hear it. Jubilee remembered rolling over in bed and muffling her laughter in the pillow as the bed shook from Logan's laughter beside her. The noises from Scott and Jean's room had ceased, and a moment later there had come a thump at the wall right beside Jubilee's head. Scott, in his annoyance, had thrown something at the wall.

Jubilee wiped her streaming eyes as she sat up. "So what was it that Scott threw?" she giggled.

Jean sat up too. "I had a book on my bedside table," she chuckled. "Scott threw it at the wall right where your head would have been if you and Logan were actually physically involved at just that moment."

"You knew?" Jubilee said.

"Jubilee, I'm a telepath. It's almost impossible to get things like that by me," Jean said dryly. "But I didn't tell Scott. He woke up this morning grumpy, and stomped off to the kitchen. He's all right, he'll come out of it." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "So did you get a costume for our little surprise tonight?"

Jubilee nodded. "I found this cute little schoolgirl outfit in a shop in the village," she said. "It's got a very short skirt. Logan got a glimpse of it; tried to make me promise not to wear it to the party." She grinned. "We all know how well I follow orders, huh?" She reached for the box Jean was pulling out from under the bed. "What did you get?"

Jean opened the box and pulled out a shiny black suit. "Found this slinky Catwoman costume," she said. "It's even got a whip with it. Scott hasn't seen this: I'm going to surprise him."

Jean's bedroom door opened, and Rogue and Betsy entered, both carrying boxes similar to Jean's. "We got ours," Rogue whispered excitedly, flipping open the lid on hers. Inside was what seemed to Jubilee like layers and layers of filmy, sheer colored scarves in jade green, teal blue, bright scarlet, and butter yellow. "A harem costume," Rogue said. "It covers everything, so there won't be any accidents if we brush up against each other on the table, but the scarves are filmy enough that there's not a whole lot left to the imagination." She turned to Betsy. "What did you get?"

The purple-haired exotic looking Asian woman opened her box. Jubilee nearly cracked up when she saw a leather warrior-woman's outfit. "I saw that at the same shop I got my costume from!" she blinked. "The shopkeeper said it had already been rented!"

"It had," Betsy said. "I called and had it reserved for me. I'd been looking at it for the last month, but I didn't know if I should get it until I found out if Charles had okayed the party or not." She pursed her lips. "I received an Email this morning from Domino and Lorna. Nate and Alex will be attending, and Moira also. She'll be coming from Muir Island. I told all the girls about our little surprise for the guys and they said they'd love to participate, too." Her eyes twinkled. "Moira's wearing her lab coat and not much else under it; and Domino's going to look like a panther, complete with a cat tail on her suit. Lorna hasn't said what she'll wear yet; she just said she was going to participate."

"Do you not think you are a bit old to be indulging in such tricks?" said a voice, and they all turned to see Ororo standing in the doorway to Jean's room looking disapproving.

Jubilee grinned. "Nope." She giggled a bit, then added, "Come on, Storm, life's too short. We're all friends, we all know who's off-limits, and as long as we're all having fun, who really cares? Not to mention what the guys are all going to be thinking when we all appear up there." She winked slyly. "So have you reconsidered? Forge would love to see you up there with us, you know."

"Indeed," the former African goddess said, looking remote and dignified, "I am sure they would, but he will have to be left to wonder. I will not disgrace myself dancing on a table with the rest of you." She turned an walked out, closing the door behind her, her back stiff.

There was silence for a while, after she left, as the four women considered that. Rogue broke the silence. "Party pooper," she said cheerfully. And with that the dam broke, and the giggles and chatter went on.

***

The big dining hall at Xavier's was brightly lit, and creepy Halloween type music mixed with a little rock and roll blared from the speakers Scott and Hank had placed at strategic intervals all around the hall. The long table had been pushed up against the far wall and was groaning form the loads of food that weighed it down. A devilishly-carved jack o' lantern sat in the center of the table glaring lopsidedly at anyone who dared to sneak a taste of the refreshments before Havok, Polaris, Moira McTaggert, Cable, and Domino arrived.

Xavier looked around, dressed in a stiffly starched black suit and a wig over his bald head that simulated Lurch, the butler form the Addams family. In the center of the room, the women were overseeing the placement of a table with a good deal of whispering and giggling. Scott was clearly annoyed. "Jean, why is this here? We don't really need a second table, all the refreshments fit on the dining table. I wanted to put a speaker there!"

Jean grinned, and Xavier picked up a wave of anticipation and delight from her. "It's got to be here, Scott, this is the only place where you can see the whole room!" Scott was about to protest again, but Xavier spoke to him telepathically. **Let them be, Scott. They are planning something, and Jean believes you will like it. I must admit to a certain curiosity as well, so let us bear with them.**

Scott grumbled as he connected another long piece of speaker wire to the subwoofer he was setting up. _Whatever it is, they've been planning this for a week,_ he thought as he ran it out to another speaker. _I hope it's good, whatever it is._

Finally everything was set up, the decorations were hung, and the X-Men were beginning to drift off to their rooms to dress when the front doorbell rang. Storm, dressed in flowing white layers of a sheer fabric that made her look like a walking fogbank, answered it, to see their five guests standing on the step. She welcomed them in, pursing her lips disapprovingly as Moira, Domino, and Lorna rushed past her to get to Jean's room. Scott followed them, only to be refused entry when he tried to enter. There was a great deal of giggling and low voices in his and Jean's bedroom, and he wanted to know what was going on, but when he tried to probe Jean's mind, he ran into a wall. More puzzled than ever, he retreated to the bathroom to dress.

Promptly at six o'clock, all the X-Men and their guests had congregated again in the dining hall. Scott looked suspiciously at Jean when she came in. She was dressed in a Renaissance-type gown, with a hem all the way down to the floor and sleeves past her elbows. It wasn't particularly pretty. His gaze sharpened when he noticed all the rest of the girls were wearing costumes similarly concealing. Jubilee was dressed in a Japanese kimono that covered practically everything and made her look shapeless. Rogue was even dressed as a ghost, wearing only a white sheet over her head with holes cut into it for her head and hands.

He caught his brother over by the refreshment table. "Alex, have you noticed anything strange about the girls' costumes?" he said. Alex nearly choked on the glass of punch he was holding and pointed to the black-robed figure of Polaris standing by Jean.

"Strange? You want to talk about strange? Look at Lorna! She's wearing one of those nun's habits, and believe me, Lorna is no nun!"

Jean peeked around the side of the towering hat she was wearing as part of her Renaissance costume and giggled. "Don't look now, Lor, but Alex and Scott are looking at us like we've taken leave of our senses!" Lorna sneaked a peek, and giggled too as she tugged at the wimple of her headdress. "So when do we get up there?" she giggled.

Jean looked across the floor to Hank, who nodded amiably at her. "Hank's going to turn out the lights when the theme song from Jaws starts," she said. "They're going to be out for about two minutes. You have to get out of your outfit and get on top of the table in the dark. I suggested to everyone else that we all get as close as possible to the table before the lights go out, so there won't be any trouble. Think you can do that?"

Lorna nodded as the song currently playing ended and she and Jean drifted over to the other women standing by the empty table in the pause between songs. As the speakers began to blast out the haunting, thumping beat of the Jaws theme song, the lights flicked out.

Scott was totally unprepared for it when it happened, and spun wildly for a moment until he realized that this must have been planned. The music continued to thump, which it wouldn't have if the electric really had gone out. Apparently the others had figured out the same as well, because there were no cries of startlemnt, or panic. He stood in the dark, waiting patiently, then sighed in relief as the lights began to come up, ever so slowly. It went up only about halfway, then a single bright spotlight came up, illuminating the table Jean had tugged into place earlier, and the seven women standing on top of it. His jaw hit the floor. Even though he couldn't see it, the rest of the men in the room were reacting in similar ways. The song stopped, to be replaced moments later by the opening bars of Ac/Dc's "All Night Long."

He stared as Jean began to gyrate to the song, dressed in that slinky black Catwoman's outfit. So this was what she'd been hiding under that long shapeless gown! The Catwoman outfit was a vast improvement over the Renaissance gown, which he saw in a heap on the floor. It made his blood heat up, and a flush rise to his face. He cursed himself silently for having chosen a Spider-Man costume (no offense to Peter Parker intended) because a certain part of his anatomy was rising toward that gyrating figure on the table. 

A touch at his elbow made him turn reluctantly, and he saw Hank standing there holding a huge bowl of candy. "Sweets for the sweet," Hank said, and Scott suddenly realized what the girls were up to. Table dancing like a stripper in a strip club, but instead of money, they were dancing for candy! It was a clever way to trick-or-treat among themselves, as the nearest house was too far away to actually go there. He tossed a handful of Hershey's kisses at Jean, who laughed and spun, kicking up her heels.

The other men quickly figured it out. When Jean jumped off the table and telekinetically cleared it of all her sweet 'currency', leaving it clear for Rogue to take her place in a whirl and flash of many-colored scarves and fabric, Remy was right there in front of her, tossing miniature Hershey bars at her. Then Betsy stepped up, wearing a costume that reminded Scott of Xena from the TV show. Warren was right in front of her, throwing her kisses and candy, and then, as she knelt there on stage to thank her, he slipped a twenty in her hand. She looked at it as if she didn't know what to do with it, and then pocketed it as Jean swept the table clear for Jubilee.

Logan's heart stopped as Jubilee's favorite song 'Start Me Up" from the Rolling Stones began to play, and he squeezed his eyes shut. It was bad enough that she'd put the costume on here when she'd promised him she wasn't going to, but to have her up there, dancing…he averted his eyes as Warren, flushed and grinning with Betsy on his arm, poked him. "Logan, aren't you going to 'reward' her?" he kidded, before walking off toward the stairs…no doubt to do something about the rising libido beginning to swirl around the room. Logan risked another glance up…to see Bobby, who had apparently decided that if Logan wasn't going to reward her, he was, began to toss candy at her. She wasn't even looking at him; all her attention was focused on Logan. She was swaying sensuously, but to his surprise didn't spin, or kick up her heels, or any of the other things the others had done. She scooped up a lollipop from the table, unwrapped it, and began to lick it slowly.

**Logan, you're embarrassing her!** Jean hissed angrily into his mind. He folded his arms and leaned resolutely against the refreshment table.

_So what,_ he thought angrily._ She's embarrassing herself, getting up there and making a scene, showing off her body._

Jean's mindvoice was furious. **Damn your hide, Logan! You made her promise not to 'show off everything that's yours' when you saw the costume! Look at her! She isn't! She hasn't bent over, no one's seen under that skirt, she's kept her end of the bargain, so the least you can do is join in the spirit of the fun!** Logan hesitated just a fraction of a second more, then turned to the table to grab a handful of Hershey's kisses and toss them on the table. But he was too late.

Jubilee had seen the enthusiastic whoops the others got, and figured she'd get as much from Logan. She took her place at the end of the table and began to dance as the song she'd selected started. Wrapped up in what she was doing, she didn't notice Logan wasn't there until she looked down and saw an empty table. She looked up in disbelief and saw him leaning back against the refreshment table, his jaw set in an unpleasant frown. 

She didn't understand; she was keeping her promise; no one was going to see the lacy briefs under the skirt, so why was he upset? She popped a lollipop into her mouth and began to suck it, hoping she could get a rise out of him. She saw the quick, furious look he gave her, and stopped short, feeling a rush of embarrassment run through her. Then she saw him turn away from the stage, and her resolve broke. She slid off the table and ran for the stairs, tears filling her eyes so that she almost tripped on the bottom step.

Logan's heart nearly stopped again as he saw her run from the room. A quick glance around showed him that almost everyone was looking at him like he was some kind of criminal; dirty looks pinned him down all the way around the room. Even Xavier looked disappointed in him. But worst of all was the hurt, wounded look Jubilee'd given him as she raced out of the hall.

Jean sighed in anger and exasperation. **GO AFTER HER, YOU IDIOT!** She shouted at Logan telepathically, 'loud' enough to be mentally overheard by almost everyone else in the room. He started for the stairs, moving before he'd even realized he was moving; due, he thought as he looked back, to Jean's telekinetic push. He climbed the steps two at a time, and reached their room. He knocked softly, then pushed the door open.

Jubilee was lying under the bedcovers, her shoulders shaking with sobs. The costume lay in a heap in the wastebasket in the corner. He stared at her, feeling the hurt and anguish pouring off her, and felt his own eyes fill with tears. "Jubes, I'm sorry," he said gently.

She sat up and threw herself at him. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "I'm sorry I did that, I didn't know you'd be mad at me, I thought that if I just stayed upright and didn't bend or anything that I wouldn't be breaking my promise to you and you'd enjoy it. I'm sorry!" and she burst into a fresh spate of tears.

"No, Jubes, I'm sorry," he said, taking her shoulders and tilting her so that she looked directly into his eyes. "I'm sorry I hesitated. I'm sorry I embarrassed ya. Jean had to shout at me before I realized you hadn't broken yer promise. By the time I grabbed a handful o' those chocolates ya like, you'd already gone. I'm sorry," he said.

Jubilee laid her head against him, feeling the quiet beat of his heart. "I'd never break my promise to you, Logan," she said, sniffling away the last of the tears. "I should have warned you. I'll do that next time. It's just…me and the others…we got so carried away trying to keep it a secret. We wanted it to be a surprise, a fun surprise. Was it?" she said, turning a hopeful face up to him.

He took her hand and tucked it into his lap, and she grinned as she felt his obvious approval. "Let's see what I can do about that," she grinned, beginning to remove his costume.

Much later, they lay in bed, listening to the sounds coming from downstairs. "Think we should go rejoin the party?" Jubilee asked him lazily. 

"Nah," he answered her. "Too comfortable here." They drifted off to sleep.


	3. Surprises

Chapter 3: Surprises

"What happened to you?" Jubilee blinked in surprise as Hank came down to breakfast the next morning very late indeed, with all his thick blue fur sticking up the wrong way.

"I believe someone may have spiked the punch a bit too heavily last night, Jubilee," he said as she pulled out a chair for him and poured him a cup of black coffee. He took the aspirin she handed him and popped them in his mouth, swallowing them down with coffee as Scott came in with the morning's mail.

Jubilee took the envelope Scott handed her and ripped it open curiously, scanning it quickly. "Oh, wow! I've been invited to speak at the upcoming International Science summit!" she exclaimed excitedly. "I never thought I'd get an invitation!"

"Neither did I," Hank said in some surprise, staring at a similar letter. "I have also been invited, to speak on the biological variations that mutants have been taking."

"I've received an invitation as well," Xavier said, coming into the room on his hoverchair. "I must admit I expected Hank to be invited, but I had no idea you were so well-known, Dr. Lee." His eyes twinkled. "Would you prefer to travel separately, or will you accompany Hank and I on my private plane?"

Jubilee grinned. "Private plane sounds great," she said. 

Logan walked in at just that moment, stifling a yawn and rubbing his eyes. "Private plane for what? Where?"

Jubilee kissed him as she shoved his coffee into his wandering hand. He pulled her into a hug, almost spilling the contents of the mug as he kissed her and ruffled her still-disheveled hair. "Charles and Hank have both been invited to the International Science Summit in Brussels. I got an invitation too. Charles was just asking me if I wanted to accompany them in his plane, or if I wanted to arrange my own transportation."

"When is it?" Logan said.

Jubilee scanned the letter quickly. "The eighteenth of November," she said finally.

Logan grimaced. "Well, I suppose I could put off the trip up north I been promisin' myself," he said.

"'Put off'? Logan, you don't have to come!"

He looked hurt. "You don't want me to come?"

She spluttered for a moment, then found her voice. "No, I—I didn't mean that, I just thought…well, we're just going there for a week to speak, and the rest will be fairly boring, I thought…maybe…you wouldn't want to--" She stopped, flustered.

"I know what ya meant," Logan said, relenting and smiling at her. "But if ya'd like, I would be happy ta accompany you."

Jubilee turned to Xavier. "What do you think, Professor? Will they allow Logan in there?"

"Almost certainly," Xavier said with a twinkle in his eye. "I doubt he will be the first bodyguard accompanying their employers to the conference."

Jubilee looked startled at Xavier, then at Logan. "Bodyguard," she said finally. "Is that why you've been following me everywhere, Logan? You think I need protection?"

"Sabretooth ain't done wit' us yet, darlin'," Logan growled. "I jus' figured I'd keep an eye on ya an' keep ya safe."

Jubilee's blue eyes narrowed. "I'm not a little girl, Logan," she said angrily. "I can take care of myself. Sabretooth won't touch me here, and especially not in Belgium. So if you'd rather go running through the woods, go right on ahead, because I don't need you to watch over me in a conference full of other people." She turned and marched out of the kitchen, taking her letter and her coffee with her. "_Men_," they heard her mutter just before the door closed.

Logan sighed. "_Women_." He looked at Hank and Xavier, and saw the same look of exasperation in their eyes. "How'm I gonna patch things up this time?"

***

Remy was in his room getting dressed when there was a tap on the door and Logan walked in. Remy took one look at Logan's face and knew something was wrong. "What wrong, mon ami?" he said.

Logan sighed. "Jubes an' I got into a fight," he said. "She foun' out I been followin' her aroun' everywhere cause I didn' want Sabretooth ta git her, an' she got upset. I wanna apologise, but I don' know how."

Remy thought. "Well, dere's flowers, but Jubes ain't the flowery type. There's candy, but she gon' know it wasn' your idea. How 'bout a necklace or somethin"? Remember de firs' time Scott an' Jean get into a fight, an' Scott bought her dat emerald ring she like so much? Maybe you git Jubes somethin' like dat."

Logan felt out-of-place in the jewelry store, uncomfortable, much the way a bull in a china shop would feel. He looked into the brightly-lit displays, bewildered by the wide assortment of sparkling jewelry, wondering how on earth he was going to find something for Jubilee in all this stuff.

A nicely-dressed saleswoman walked up to him. 'Can I help you find anything, Sir?" she asked politely.

Hmm. Maybe she could. "Uh, yeah. I'm lookin' fer somethin' fer my girlfriend." It was the first time he'd referred to Jubilee as his girlfriend, and it felt odd.

"A marriage proposal?" the saleswoman prodded.

"Naw, just a gift. We jus' got inta a fight, an' I wanna make up."

The salesgirl brought out a number of rings, bracelets, and necklaces, but Logan didn't see anything Jubilee might like. She had a necklace she adored; a sapphire drop pendant that matched her eyes, and he had some vague idea of finding something that would match the necklace, but he didn't see anything like it. Thanking the saleswoman for her help, he wandered out of the store.

He headed for the front door of the mall, swearing silently. He should have brought the Cajun with him; Remy knew what girls liked. He didn't. 

He sighed, and walked into another jewelry shop. This one was busier. He wandered around the cases, looking but not really expecting, to find something for Jubilee. He stopped suddenly in front of a full case of sapphires. There was a pair of sapphire drop earrings, exactly like her necklace, but with tiny diamonds set into the edge of the stones. They would be perfect. He knew she'd like them.

"Can I help you with anything?" said the saleswoman when she came over. 

He pointed to the earrings. "Yeah," he said. "I want those."

She unlocked the case, took out the earrings, and produced a little velvet box for them. As she did so, she said casually, "We have a ring that matches these. If you take them all together, we can give you the clearance price on the set." Without waiting for his answer, she reached into the back of the case and brought out a small gold band with two teardrop shaped sapphires on either side of an oval-cut sapphire. Logan looked at it, trying to envision it around Jubilee's finger. 

"Okay," he said. The saleswoman rang up the jewelry, and he walked out of the store feeling victorious.

The feeling evaporated halfway home when he stopped to consider the possibility that she might not like it. As hard as he tried to put the thought out of his head, it kept coming back. By the time he parked his bike in the garage, he was a nervous wreck. He peeked into the bag one last time, then steeled himself and went up to their room.

Jubilee wasn't there.

He breathed a sigh, half of relief that she wasn't there, and half of regret that he couldn't just give it to her and get it all over with. He opened the tiny velvet boxes again, looked inside. The earrings would definitely be okay, but the ring…

The bedroom door opened behind him and he spun around, hiding the two tiny boxes behind his back. Jubilee walked in, reading something on a sheet of paper absently, then put the paper down on her desk. Only then did she look up and see him standing by the dresser, red as a beet and holding something behind his back. "What are you hiding?" she asked.

"Uh, nothin'," Logan said, closing his fists around the little boxes. His face flushed brighter with the lie, and she noticed.

"Come on," she said, her tone light as she walked across the room and tugged his hands from behind his back. "What are you hiding?" She uncurled his fingers from around one of the boxes and opened it. Logan squeezed his eyes shut, expecting an explosion. When he didn't hear anything, he opened one eye.

Jubilee was staring at the sapphire earrings, her eyes wide in delight. Her mouth opened and closed several times speechlessly, and then she found her voice. "Logan, they're…beautiful," she whispered, touching them. "Wow. I've been looking for something like these for a while to match my necklace. How did you find these?" Then she gasped again as he opened the other box and gave it to her. "Logan…"

He held up a hand. "It ain't an engagement ring or nothin'," he said. "Jus' a present. They were part of a set, the saleswoman said, an' I could get 'em both at a lower price than I could getting' 'em separate." He took a breath. "Uh, I used the bankcard ta the account ya put my name on. Is that okay?"

Jubilee threw back her head and laughed. "I was wondering when you were going to use that account," she chuckled. "I kept putting more money into it, hoping you'd use it, and you never did…until you wanted to buy something for me." She laughed and threw her arms around him, squeezing him in a hug that made his ribs creak. "I love you, Logan." 

Jean's eyes popped when she saw the pretty sapphires on Jubilee's hand at dinner that evening. ""Wow," she said. "Jubilee, they're gorgeous! Logan, how ever did you find them?" Ororo had a similar reaction.

Jubilee laughed again when they went up to their room. She sat down at her desk as Logan stretched out on the bed. "They're the most gorgeous things, Logan, I love them. And I love you." She kissed him as she got undressed, then sat back down at her desk and started flipping through one of the books on the table. For a while there was nothing but the sound of turning pages, the TV, and the scratching of a pen. When Jubilee turned away from the speech she was preparing for the summit to ask Logan a question, she discovered he was asleep.

Smiling, she got up and switched off her desk light, picked up the remote and switched off the TV, then slid into bed beside Logan and pulled the covers up over him. She snuggled into bed behind him, wrapped her legs around him, and whispered, "I love you," before she fell asleep.

Logan woke in the middle of the night, suddenly. Something had disturbed him, and it took a moment to figure out what it was. There was a distant sound of alarms going off downstairs. He recognized that sound; the mansion's intruder alarms. He slipped out of bed silently, stuffing a pillow down into the bed in front of Jubilee to simulate himself. Very rarely did she have a peaceful night's sleep, and he didn't want to ruin this one for her.

All up and down the hall doors were opening and slamming, and the X-Men were racing downstairs to the War Room, the room that held all the security defenses for the mansion. Xavier was already there, dressed similarly in pajamas and manipulating the cameras grimly, looking for the cause of the alarms. "Wait," Ororo stopped him suddenly. "There." Xavier stopped moving the camera on the mansion's west wing and backtracked until Ororo stopped him again. "There," she said.

The bushes edging the treeline bordering the west side of Xavier's property suddenly parted, and Sabretooth stepped into view. He obviously knew that they knew he was there, because he spread his arms out and roared.

"Show yerself, runt!" he howled.

Logan took off at a dead run, ignoring Xavier's sharp "Logan!" He flung open the front door and skidded to a stop, barely noticing the chill early November air on his bare skin as he faced Sabretooth.

Sabretooth grinned. "Hey, runt," he said, grinning unpleasantly. "Did I interrupt ya messin' wit' da frail?" 

Logan put a deep growl in his voice. "Git it all outta yer system, Creed, so we can git to the shreddin' part."

Creed laughed. "Me shreddin' ya or you shreddin' me? Or is that me shreddin' ya girl? I'd love that last part almost more than the first part, but as fer you shreddin' me, it ain't happenin'."

"Damn right it won't," came a clear, ringing female voice, and Logan looked up to see Jubilee standing in the open window of their bedroom, in her uniform. "There won't be enough left of you for Logan to shred when I get done with you."

Sabretooth laughed harshly. "Well, ya can try," he said. "Come on down here an' join da party, frail."

Logan nearly yelled when Jubilee jumped out of that window. It was nearly thirty feet from the ground! But she didn't fall like a stone, as he expected. She drifted down and landed gracefully onto the grass like a falling leaf, and he only realized she'd used her powers when she walked over to stand beside him and he saw her eyes glowing. _How the hell did she do that? _he wondered, but he didn't have time to speculate. Jubilee was moving quickly on the balls of her feet, moving lightly over the moonlight-silvered lawn toward Sabretooth.

Sabretooth dropped quickly into a crouch position, notwithstanding his earlier taunts about shredding her. Jubilee stalked silently around Sabretooth, never taking her eyes off him. When he lunged for her, she ducked easily. They circled again as Logan joined them. This time, Sabretooth lunged for Logan, who ran forward as Sabretooth ran towards him. His claws scored the side of the bigger man's ribs, and Sabretooth howled in anger and pain, turning and lunging for Logan again. Jubilee raised her hands and sent a multi-colored stream toward him, which exploded on contact and hurled Sabretooth back into the treeline. Losing his temper completely, Sabretooth ran towards her where she stood by the huge trunk of an old oak tree. "Jubilee! Look out!" Logan yelled, but she just stood there, facing Sabretooth. He started to run toward them..a few steps, just a few more…

But Sabretooth was going to reach her before she did. And why was she just standing there, with that queer glitter in her eyes…Sabretooth was…

Sabretooth's head rammed into the trunk of a tree, and he fell to the ground at its foot, dazed. When he and Logan looked up to see where Jubilee had gone, they discovered that she was standing, on air, about a foot over Creed's head, laughing mockingly. She touched down lightly at the base of another tree, and Sabretooth lunged for her again.

It took running into four trees before Sabretooth gave up his rush-and-grab offense, which was plainly not working. Jubilee simply skipped from tree to tree, allowing him to pummel his own head into unconsciousness. When he finally fell over, dizzy and dazed, Jubilee walked over to him and scornfully kicked him. "Stay away from us," she snarled at him, in a credible imitation of Logan. "You're never going to succeed trying to beat the crap out of us, so save yourself some broken bones and concussions and near-death experiences and get the hell outta here. You're disturbing my sleep." She turned and started to walk away.

Sabretooth uncoiled from the ground and rushed forward, trying to catch her in his arms. Jubilee didn't even turn around; she simply jumped into the air as if she were trying to hop the stairs at the mansion three at a time, and landed on air about two feet above his head. As he stared, dumbfounded, at her, she released another stream of pyrotechnics at him and slammed his head into the ground.

He got up, shaking his head, and scowled. "You ain't heard the last of me yet!" he screamed at her retreating back. 

She laughed scornfully. "Go ahead, kitty. Hiss all you like. You're not going to get anywhere making all that noise." She sent a blast of technicolor sparks at the ground under him, causing the ground to explode under him and fling him into the air. Once in midair, she sent another stream of her fireworks at him and caught him broadside, sending him soaring out over the middle of the lake. When her power 'paf'ed out, he fell several feet into the middle of the cold, near-frozen lake. 

Logan swallowed hard as he grabbed her shoulders. "Are you all right?" he said. Her eyes, still glowing with her power, looked blankly at him for a moment before the glow faded and her reason returned. "Jubilee, how did you do that?"

Ororo was the first of the other X-Men to reach her. "Jubilee! Are you all right? How did you do that? I didn't know you could fly!" but explanations had to wait until they got her in. The intense heat generated by the use of her powers left her feeling cold, and she was shivering.

She tried to explain as Logan sat her down in a kitchen chair and Ororo shoved a cup of steaming tea into her hand. "I found I could crate breezes by heating a small section of air up to make a wind. I can't do it on anything close to the scale you can, Storm, but it's come in handy sometimes. Then I wondered if I could make it do the same thing, but in reverse. I tried to freeze atoms in midair. It took a few tries, but I eventually managed to 'freeze' enough atoms quickly enough to make a sot of floating 'platform' in the air. It's not flying, like you and Rogue…but it gets me out of the way quick enough. I'd never tried it in battle before, though," she said. "Tonight was the first time, but I figured if it didn't work, Logan would be there to take care of me." She reached out, took Logan's hand, and squeezed it gratefully. "Thanks, Logan. I'm sorry I got mad at you for being a 'bodyguard'. I do need it, and I'd love it if you came to Brussels with me."


	4. The Flight

Chapter 4: Flight

"Got everything?" Jubilee grinned cheerfully at Logan as she tucked clothes into her suitcase.

Logan grunted back at her, busy trying to figure out if he did indeed have everything. She had said they would be there a week; he was taking along enough changes of clothes for the week, and a couple pairs of shoes.

Jubilee closed her suitcase and came to peek over his shoulder at the small pile of clothes in the suitcase. "You forgot to pack a suit," she said.

"A suit?" he growled. "What for?"

"We're going to a conference," she said patiently. "There's usually a formal affair on the last night of a conference, and guests and speakers are all expected to dress."

Logan groaned. "Jubes, I ain't got a blasted suit," he said, exasperated. "An' where'm I gonna find one this late? You should'a told me earlier!"

She giggled, grinned. "Way ahead of you, darling," she said. From the back of her closet she pulled out a black garment bag and handed it to him.

He glared at it suspiciously, and Jubilee giggled again. "Logan, it's not going to bite you," she snickered. "Open it and see what it looks like!"

He yanked at the tiny zipper and unzipped it. Inside was a basic black suit pant and jacket, and two crisp, clean, starched white shirt. There were also two ties draped around the collar of the shirts. "Uh-uh," he said firmly.

"'Uh-uh' what?" she said, hands on her hips.

"I ain't wearin' a tie, Jubes. No way. Sorry darlin'." He grabbed for the ties and pulled them off the hanger. 

Jubilee scooped the ties off their bedroom floor and dusted them off, holding them back out to him. "Logan, it's a formal affair. You have to."

He crossed his arms stubbornly and looked at the ceiling.

"Logan, come on," she said, her voice changing to a wheedling, coaxing tone. "Look, it's just the one night! I chose two of them because I didn't know which one you'd like. Come on, just pick one and let's finish packing."

He shook his head again. "I ain't wearin' a tie."

"Logan, they match my dress! Please, just this once!" she pleaded. "Everyone else will be wearing one, even Hank and Charles." He still shook his head.

"Why?" she asked. "Why won't you wear it?"

"I hate ties," he growled. "They're too damn uncomfortable, and its too easy fer someone ta grab ya and strangle ya while yer wearin' one."

Jubilee laughed at him. "Logan, you have claws. If someone's stupid enough to try to strangle you with your tie, you can always cut it." She turned and rummaged in her closet again, coming out with another garment bag. She draped it on the bed and opened it, pulling out a sapphire gown. "You think this thing's easy to wear?" she asked, holding it up in front of him. 

He stared at it. It was a gorgeous creation of blue satin and sequins that would hug her curves and accent her small, full bust. "Easy on the eyes, darlin'," he said.

Jubilee made a face. "The cloth hugs my waist a bit tight," she said, "And I have to pad the top of the dress because I haven't got the breasts to fill it out properly. The sequins scratch my arms. And the shoes hurt my feet and give me blisters."

"So why wear it?" he said. "Why not find somethin' else ta wear that's more comf'rtable?"

"Because you think it's beautiful," she said softly. "You saw a photograph of me in the dress once and then you couldn't stop staring at it. I had it cleaned just for this occasion, because _you_ liked it. So if _I_ can be uncomfortable in this dress for four hours, then _you_ can be uncomfortable in a tie for the same amount of time."

He almost relented. Almost.

Jubilee flung the dress on the bed and began to pout. He glared. She pouted some more. He glared some more.

Ororo and Xavier paused in front of their room door, looking with thinly-disguised amusement at the two silent figures. "What is wrong?" Ororo finally asked.

"Jubilee's makin' me--" Logan began.

"Logan's stubborn ass won't--" Jubilee spoke at the same time.

"Wear that damn tie!" they both finished.

Xavier turned his face aside, hiding a cough behind his hand that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. He quickly composed himself when he saw the two of them glaring at him. Logan's grim look suggested that if Xavier so much as smirked, he was going to lose his temper. "Logan, it is a formal affair," he said gently. "Ties are usually required, and it will certainly look odd if you don't wear one. If you insist on coming--" and Logan looked murderously at him, as if daring him to go any further, and Xavier bit off the rest of his words, finishing with, "The least you could do is dress appropriately. After all, you don't want people to look oddly at Jubilee because her escort to the affair is not appropriately dressed."

Logan still looked rebellious, and Ororo hastened to intercede. "Logan, Jubilee, if I may make a suggestion," she said. Two pairs of eyes turned toward her. "The last formal affair we had here--I believe it was last Christmas--you wore a bolo tie with a decorative silver clasp," she said to Logan. "Perhaps you could wear that with the suit instead of a traditional tie. It might serve the purpose."

Jubilee rummaged around in one of Logan's drawers, and came up with the tie. "Try it on," she urged him, pushing the tie and the suit at him and shoving him toward the bathroom door. "And hurry! We're going to miss our flight if we don't hurry!" she rolled her eyes in exasperation at him as the bathroom door slammed. She turned her attention to the dress on the bed, tucking it back into the garment bag and zipping it up. 

The bathroom door opened, and Logan came out, fussing with the starched collar of the shirt. He hadn't bothered putting on the pants. Jubilee looked critically at the bolo tie and the jacket, and then said, "'Ro, you're a genius. It's not as good as a traditional tie, but it'll pass muster." 

Logan breathed a huge sigh of relief, and took off the jacket, shirt, and tie. "Fine. At least I don't haveta wear the blasted thing," he snorted as he stuffed the jacket and shirt back into the garment bag. Jubilee yelped. "Now what?" he sighed as he looked back at her.

"You have to hang it, Logan, or it'll wrinkle--" she trailed off as she settled the suit shirt and jacket neatly back on its hanger and zipped up the bag. She slung it over her arm with an annoyed whuff and stalked out of the room carrying both bags out to the van.

Xavier sighed. "I am not used to taking commuter flights," he said to Ororo wistfully as she took one of the suitcases and Logan took the other. "There is no chance that my private plane is fixed, is there?"

Ororo shook her head. It had been several months since Xavier had needed his private jet, and when he had called yesterday he found that it had needed repairs and had been grounded. There had been a last-minute scramble to obtain seats on the Air Bruxelles Flight 103 going to Belgium. As a result, they were now rushing to catch the flight.

Scott and Jean had already put Xavier's and Hank's bags in the van. Scott was going to drive the four of them to the airport, and Jubilee and Logan would push Xavier's wheelchair out to the plane. If they had been taking his plane he wouldn't have had to leave his hoverchair behind, and it would have been easier to move about, but they were all quite sure the passengers on a commuter flight wouldn't react well to seeing a floating wheelchair on the plane!

***

Jubilee stowed the bags in the overhead compartment and sat down as Hank (wearing his image inducer) and Logan got Xavier's wheelchair strapped down to the floor of the plane. Xavier himself sat comfortably in one of the seats, securely strapped in. Jubilee popped a stick of gum in her mouth and began to chew as the plane taxied into position on the runway for takeoff.

Once they were in the air and on the way Jubilee settled back and opened her briefcase, which she'd insisted on carrying herself. Logan shook his head. It was a change, seeing her haul around a big briefcase. Hank looked across at what she was working on, and she handed him the papers. "They're my notes for the speech," she said. "I figured I'd concentrate on what kinds of theories could now be proved or disproved by engaging the help of mutants gifted with the appropriate powers," she said. "I'm sort of stuck here--" and she pointed to a passage halfway down the page. "I can't come up with anything right there." Hank looked at the indicated place as Jubilee added, "I hate writing speeches. I hate giving speeches." 

Hank adjusted his glasses and read the passage. "Well, Jubilee, if I may make a suggestion…"

Logan drowsed off as Xavier and Jubilee and Hank started discussing Jubilee's speech. It was going to be a long flight.

He awoke some time later as the plane bucked. The flight attendant's voice came on over the loudspeakers. "Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and return your seats and tray tables to their upright position. We are encountering a bit of rough weather ahead. It might get a little bumpy, but don't worry, we're going to be perfectly all right."

Logan growled as the plane bucked again. Sitting beside him, Jubilee woke groggily, and rubbed her eyes. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Plane's hittin' some turbulence," Logan told her. "Not to worry, Jubes."

There was a sudden loud splatter against the window, and Jubilee looked out, to see a wall of hard rain hit the window. Further off, in the clouds, lightning sizzled against the dark backdrop.

"Doesn't look very reassuring, does it?" said a voice behind them. Jubilee turned, to see the smiling face of Professor Matthew Cohen and his new wife Claudia.

Jubilee's face lit up. "Why Professor! I didn't know you were on this flight!" she said. "I haven't seen you since your wedding. Congratulations, by the way, and I'm sorry I didn't say that sooner."

"You were rather tied up at the time," Cohen said dryly. "That big ugly mutant that broke in and carried you off—nasty business. I was so glad to hear you'd gotten home safe." He looked at Logan. "And this is your young man?" He offered his hand to Logan.

Jubilee laughed. "Not so young, Matthew, but yes, he's my 'young man' as you put it." She turned. "Logan, meet Matthew Cohen, one of best physics professors at Columbia University, and this is Claudia, his wife. Professor Cohen, this is Professor Charles Xavier and Dr. Henry McCoy, both very close friends of mine." Xavier and Hank shook his hand cordially. 

"We met," Logan said, shaking the man's hand. "At your residence, it was, an' it was you who loaded me down with all that food in case we got stuck up there. Didn' have a chance ta thank ya then, but it all came in handy."

"I trust you came through it all right?" Cohen looked at Jubilee over the edge of his glasses.

Jubilee nodded. "Yes, I did, thanks to Logan." She squeezed his hand. Logan squeezed back.

"I'm glad," he said. "All that blood all over the carpet; I was worried maybe you'd been hurt severely."

Jubilee shook her head. "I've got a couple of scars on my leg, but that's all," she said.

Their conversation was cut short as the plane listed hard off to the right. Jubilee grabbed at the arm of her seat and her briefcase at the same time as several gasps of fear came from the passengers around them. Logan growled and grabbed the arms of his seat. "Where's Storm when ya need her?" 

"It's not that bad, Logan, it really isn't," Jubilee said, but there was worry in her eyes too. Then she flinched as hail started to hit the window at her elbow.

Logan took her briefcase from her hand, unbuckled his seatbelt, and stood up, popping open the overhead compartment and stowing her bag in it. He sat down again and buckled his seatbelt as the plane jerked again.

The passenger in the seat in front of Jubilee screamed as lightning sizzled right in front of her window. "We're going to die!" she screamed, clutching the arm of the man sitting next to her hysterically.

Jubilee rolled her eyes and grinned at Logan, then braced herself in her seat as the plane tossed again. The speakers crackled to life again. "Ladies and gentlemen, the storm seems to be worsening. We will be diverting to Heathrow Airport in London until the storm lets up. We are terribly sorry for the inconvenience."

"Just get us on the ground!" the hysterical woman in front of them screamed, and around them, Jubilee could hear murmurs of assent from the other passengers. She agreed with them silently, too. It wasn't the worst flight she'd ever been on, but it was certainly starting to look like one of the worst, and the fact that the plane was a smaller one didn't help at all.

Xavier closed his eyes and probed the pilot and co pilot in their seats in the front. The plane's bucking didn't seem to be all involving turbulence, he felt, and his guess was confirmed when he 'saw' in the pilot's mind the fear. He broke off the link and spoke telepathically to Jubilee, Hank, and Logan. **There seems to be something wrong with the third engine,** he said grimly, pointing out the window to where the third engine hung from the wing. 

Jubilee's mental voice spoke in their heads, startling them. She had discovered she had latent telepathic powers, but she used them so seldom it was sometimes easy to forget she had them at all. She had told Logan once that she didn't use it often because it gave her headaches. **Can you tell what's wrong with it?** she asked Xavier.

He shook his head. **No, the pilot just knows something is wrong. He's not sure of the exact problem.**

Jubilee looked out the window to the engine, just as the plane lurched again. There was a brief moment when it felt like she was weightless, then gravity slammed them back into their seats.

Behind her, Claudia shivered and tried not to look terrified as the plane bucked again. Jubilee smiled sympathetically and turned to speak to her, trying to alleviate some of her nerves. "It's okay, Claudia," she said. The woman tried to force a smile, but it was definitely strained, and there was a bit of tightness around her eyes. 

Professor Cohen patted her arm and tried to look cheerful. "So are you going to the summit in Brussels?" he asked them. 

"Yes, we've all been invited to speak," Jubilee said. 

Cohen's eyes twinkled. "Well, at least you have help with your speech," he said gently. "I remember how much you hate making speeches."

The speakers crackled to life, and the flight attendant announced, "We have contacted Heathrow Airport and have received clearance to land. We will be coming up on the airport in just a few minutes, ladies and gentlemen, you will be able to see the airport's lights off the front edge of the left wing in a few minutes." Jubilee pressed her forehead to the glass, looking for the lights. In front of them, the hysterical woman said angrily, "Well it's about time! Can't you all move this big stupid thing any faster?"

She jumped as a bolt of lightning sizzled past the window, then another. Just as they were all breathing a big sigh, there was another one, a right blinding flash, and a loud crack. The woman started screaming as the plane went wild, and Jubilee and Logan stared in silent horror out of her window.

Lightning had struck the wing of the plane, and sheared off the last few feet of wing and taken the engine with it. "We're gonna die!" the woman in front of them screamed, and her screams were mirrored by the screams of the other passengers. Logan wrapped his arms tight around Jubilee. The plane was going to crash. There was no doubt in his mind about it. But at least he would die with Jubilee in his arms.

Xavier felt the fear and panic in the pilots in the cabin, and then the flight attendants and the rest of the passengers. He gripped the arms of his seat, feeling a surge of that panic rising inside him. It couldn't end like this. All the work he'd done, all the times he'd cheated or escaped death, all the effort he'd put into his X-Men and his dream, and it was going to end out here over the Atlantic Ocean in a fiery conflagration as the out-of-control plane plunged into the ocean.

Hank closed his eyes. He'd never been a particularly religious person, but sitting here now, facing imminent death, thinking about the people he'd miss at the mansion, a snatch of Nightcrawler's voice kept playing through his mind, and his mouth silently formed the words "_Our Father, who art in heaven…"_

Jubilee clutched Logan tight in her arms, feeling his love wrap around her like a blanket. Oddly enough, she didn't feel afraid. Logan was with her; nothing could tear them apart, not even death. She felt oddly euphoric, as though she was walking on air…

"Walking on air," she whispered, an idea forming in her mind. "Walking on air! That's it!" She pushed Logan's arms away and unfastened her seatbelt. Ignoring Logan's cry she ran as best as she could toward the emergency hatch at the back of the plane. The Flight attendant didn't even try to stop her, too terrified to do anything as Jubilee yanked the handle. She took a deep breath and jumped out into the swirling maelstrom of the storm outside.


	5. Averted Disaster

Chapter 5: Averted Disaster

She tumbled out of the hatch, gritting her teeth against the icy rain and hard hail that pounded her body and immediately soaked her clothes. It took a moment for her to pull her wits around her and freeze the molecules of water and air under her to form a hovering, secure platform. Once she did that, she pushed the wet hair from her eyes and looked for the plane.

It was already far below her, and she had only minutes before it plunged into the roiling, turbulent waters of the Atlantic below. She reached out with every ounce of power she had, concentrating so hard she was starting to glow. Her eyes were glowing like small blue suns as she 'grabbed' molecules of air and water below the plane, forming it into a hard layer under it. She nearly lost it when the plane crashed through the not-quite solid 'path' she was making for it in the air and continued on its headlong nosedive into the ocean. She swore, and grabbed the molecules again, this time making it substantially thicker, and creating an incline.

Inside the cockpit, the pilot stared in disbelief as a glittering blue 'slide' appeared directly below the plane. It was impossible; it couldn't be solid; they were going to plunge right through it like they did the last one, and fall into the freezing ocean below, but he couldn't help squeezing his eyes shut and praying.

There was a scream of metal on something solid, and then a _thunk._ After another moment he opened his eyes. There was a small, glowing blue figure _standing in front of the plane_. 

Jubilee felt an immense rush of relief as the second path of frozen molecules held under the plane. She stood in front of it, freezing the molecules of air rushing through the plane's remaining engine, and reached out with her telepathy. It gave her a splitting headache, but she didn't have a choice; she had to get the pilots to turn off the engine. The engine was trying to propel the plane forward, straining against the molecular barrier around the fragile platform she had created for it. The plane had struck the incline and followed the slide down and then back up, much like a roller coaster track. Now, if she could reach the pilot…

The pilot jumped as he heard a woman's voice in his head. **Turn off the engine!**

"You hear that?" he blinked at the copilot. The other man shook his head.

He looked at the blue figure again, and this time it drew a finger across its throat in a slashing motion. **Turn off the engine!** came that insistent voice in his head again.

He got the message. He hit the switch that would turn off the engines.

Outside Jubilee blinked, and shook the rain out of her hair and eyes. The engines were off. She gave a sigh of relief and turned her attention to the hovering platform that supported the plane just about a thousand feet above the waves. She saw Logan and Xavier staring out of the window just forward of the broken wing, but she couldn't spare a minute to pay attention to them.

Way off to the left, she saw the glittering lights of the airport. Summoning all the reserves of strength she had, she began to pull the plane closer and closer to her, and moved backward, 'towing' it toward the lights of the airport.

Xavier stared out the window at the woman hovering outside. She had first used this airwalking power in the fight against Sabretooth, but he'd never dreamed that she could use it like this, on such a large scale! The power she was using must have been incredible. Dimly, in the middle of that small blue sun, he saw Jubilee's arms shaking from the effort of trying to freeze and control that many molecules of air all at once. She had dropped her hold on her platform, unable to maintain it. Now she was standing on the 'platform' that held the plane up in midair.

Logan stared. He'd known Jubilee was powerful; he'd never dreamed she could do this. He was worried; how was she holding up physically against the incredible strain?

Hank watched her too. He had seen her molecular manipulation in the isolated reaction chamber he'd made for her, had seen her freeze molecules to support different objects, ranging from a feather all the way up to a bucket full of water. But he'd never dreamed she'd take the lesson learned from those experiments and apply them on such a grand scale.

Jubilee closed her eyes, paused. Her arms were shaking, stiffly extended, gripping tightly onto the molecules of air and water. A huge section of the platform broke off as her attention wavered, and she cursed, tears leaking from her eyes. Logan was on that plane; she couldn't let him die. And Charles, and Hank, and all those other people. With a tremendous effort she pulled her attention back to the plane full of frightened people, and away from the spasms of agony shooting through her brain from the tightly knotted muscles of her arms, back, and shoulders.

She pulled them, step by agonizing step, toward the airport. It might have been faster if the engines had been on, but she wouldn't have been able to manipulate the molecules ahead of the plane fast enough to keep it in the air. Her body was screaming at her; she was screaming, too, but she barely noticed the sounds she was making, she was concentrating so absolutely on the plane and her objective.

The flaggers on the runway below stared in silence as they saw the crippled plane come in so slowly. Only as the flight came closer did they see the glowing blue figure guiding the plane. Astonishment caused all the airwave chatter to cease, as everyone watched, hearts in their mouths, as the plane came lower and lower, toward the surface of the runway. The reporters who had clustered, ready to report a disaster, were now speaking as quickly and as excitedly as they could, trying to describe the miracle they were witnessing.

And back in New York, in the rec room of the mansion, every resident of the mansion sat glued to the screen. It was pure luck that Ororo had been watching CNN at just that moment that they had broken off their talk about some politician or other to bring them 'breaking news' from London's airport. They didn't need the reporter to tell them that the captain of the flight said it was a passenger who was effecting this miracle. They had seen Jubilee's fight against Sabretooth, the new ability she'd demonstrated, and they knew without a doubt that it was Jubilee keeping that plane in the air. 

Jubilee concentrated single-mindedly on the runway and the plane, afraid that if she allowed herself to think of anything else at that moment she would give in to the incredible pain. Every muscle in her body was shaking from the strain; her eyes felt like they were on fire; and her head was pounding with the worst headache she'd ever felt in her life. _Come on, Jubes!_ She chided herself as darkness swam in her peripheral vision._ Come on, it's just a little farther, you can do it, don't wimp out now! _ Then anger took over. _You've seen Jean do this with her telekinesis and the Blackbird. You're going to say it can't be done when it can?_ The tiny spurt of anger gave her the will she needed to hold the molecular 'platform' for the last few feet. As she saw the tail end of the plane pass onto the end of the runway, she screamed in triumph and agony, and released her hold on the atoms, allowing them to go on their merry way. The plane dropped the remaining ten feet to the runway. She was unconscious before her own body struck the asphalt of the runway.

Logan didn't even register the flight attendant's exhortations for everyone to remain in their seats. When he saw Jubilee drop out of the air and lie crumpled on the runway, all he could think of was getting to her. From inside the plane he hadn't heard her terrible scream, but he'd seen her face contort in agony, and he knew only one thing: he had to get to her as fast as he could. The flight attendant tried to block his way to the same emergency escape hatch Jubilee had used to get outside the plane, but he brushed past her as if she wasn't there. One swipe of his claws sliced a hole in the door, and he ripped through the metal as if it wasn't even there. He jumped out of the hatch, not even blinking at the height he was off the ground, and landed hard on the runway. Ignoring the wrench he felt in his leg at the impact, he sprinted to the woman lying on the ground.

The rescue workers were just standing around, and although he cursed them for not doing anything as he ran up, he soon understood why. The air around Jubilee was superheated; until the heat went away, there was no way anyone could touch her.

"Jubilee!" He called to her, desperately willing her to open her eyes. From this distance, he couldn't see whether she was breathing or not, and all he could smell was the scent of superheated ozone and sweat. "Jubes, darlin', come on, open your eyes. You gotta get ridda all that heat 'fore we can come getcha!"

Jubilee sank gratefully into darkness when the plane touched down, but she didn't allow herself to surrender completely. There had been a lot of shaking around; she had to wait until she knew her friends had come through okay. Dimly she heard someone shouting her name, as if from a long distance away. Logan. "Jubilee!" he sounded urgent. She raised her head with an effort and looked at him.

"Jubes. You have to get rid of all that extra heat before we can come and get you,!" he said. "The firemen are bringing a hose, but it ain't gonna do much. You haveta let it go, Jubes!"

She moaned, sinking back onto the ground. She couldn't use her power again, she just couldn't! Everything in her body ached fiercely, and she was in so much agony. "Jubilee!" she heard Logan yell again.

What was it that he wanted? Oh yeah, that was it. The heat. She barely felt it, but if it was all that intense…she raised one arm weakly and waved it at the molecules in the air, stirring the air up and dissipating the heat. The air above the runway was going to be some degrees warmer than the air outside it until the molecules ran out of pent-up energy, but that was all right. 

Logan ran forward as he felt the heat dissipate a bit, and fell to his knees beside her, scooping her limp body up in his arms. Her eyes were still glowing, but she was otherwise completely drained. Her eyelids fluttered weakly. "Did…did everyone…make it?" she gasped shallowly as he put her carefully down on the gurney one of the paramedics shoved in front of him.

"Yeah, Jubilee, darlin', everyone made it. No one got so much as a scratch; Chuck and Hank are fine. Ya saved us all, darlin'!" He kissed her gently and stepped back as the paramedic injected something into her arm.

"I'm…glad…" was all she managed before she slipped into welcoming, comforting, pain-free darkness.

***

Light. Bright, blinding light. It speared into her head through her eyes, and the terrible headache she'd passed out with awoke again. She squeezed her eyes shut, moaned in anguish. Someone said something in a low voice that nevertheless made her cry weakly in pain, and the lights dimmed. A cool hand touched her burning forehead, and a comforting presence entered her mind. She fuzzily recognized the presence as Xavier's. Abruptly, the pounding in her head eased, and a comforting voice spoke to her mentally. **There, Jubilee. Is that better?**

It hurt to even form thoughts. What she wanted most was to fall back into that velvety blackness and go back to sleep. But she stubbornly pushed that overwhelming desire aside and opened her eyes.

It was considerably dimmer now, and she could open her eyes, though they watered in pain. There were six fuzzy figures around her, and as she blinked the tears away, she recognized Xavier, Hank, Logan Professor Cohen, and Claudia. The last figure wore a white medical coat and she assumed he was a doctor. "Where am I?" she tried to ask, but her voice came out in an unintelligible croak, and her throat hurt from the effort. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Where am I?" This time she had better results, though she could still hardly recognize the voice as hers.

"You're in the Royal Academy of Medicine's hospital," Xavier said to her, his voice low and comforting. A hand touched hers; she tried to hold it, and couldn't even find enough energy to curl her fingers. The fingers gripped hers instead, and she knew it was Logan's. "The Queen herself insisted that you be brought here; you saved a lot of people's lives. Not just the lives of everyone on the plane, but everyone on the ground. Simulations showed that if you hadn't stopped the plane, it would have crashed into the center of the business district and cost a lot of lives. Professor Cohen has spoken to the Chairman of the seminar and you've been excused, as you're obviously in no condition to be moved. Hank and I will go to the summit and you'll stay here with Logan. We'll come back for you at the end of the week."

Jubilee sank back with a sigh. "I wasn't looking forward to the speech anyway," she whispered as she drifted back into sleep.

When she woke again, there was only Logan beside her bed. The lights were still dimmed, and he was half-asleep in his chair as Jubilee woke. She groaned and sat up. Her headache, thankfully, was mostly gone.

Logan straightened up as Jubilee sat up, and curled his arm around her shoulders. "Feelin' better, darlin?" he said. She nodded experimentally, and smiled as she realized the headache was gone.

"Much better now the headache's gone," she said. "Where's everybody?" Logan glanced upward at the clock over her bed.

"By now, probably in the middle of Chuck's speech," he said. Jubilee looked up in surprise. "Jubes, you been sleepin' fer almost three days," he said.

"Days?!" she yelped.

"Yeah," he said, handing her a cup of water. She drank it gratefully, sighing as it soothed her raw throat.

The door opened, and she watched a white-coated doctor walk in. "Well, it's nice to see you up and around, Miss Lee," he said courteously. "You are apparently in perfect health; you just need to recover from the effort you put into saving so many lives. You are free to leave whenever you like; though I don't think it would be a wise idea to go far. You are still quite weak."

Jubilee discovered that fact when she tried to slide out of bed. "I think you're right," she groaned. "Still, I'd like to get out of here. It doesn't seem likely, does it?"

The door opened again, this time to admit an extremely stiff man dressed in red, carrying a huge bouquet of flowers. Jubilee blinked as he set it down on the edge of the bedside table and handed her a card. She opened the envelope, noting the expensive gold embossing on the thick stationary, and read the note aloud.

"'To Dr. Jubilation Lee, from her Royal Majesty the Queen:

My dear Dr. Lee, 

You have done Us and Our kingdom a great service by saving all the lives on the plane and those on the ground as well. You are hereby invited to a Ball to be held in your honor two days from today, on Saturday. Please send your acceptance by the footman who brings the flowers.

Sincerely,

The Queen'."

Jubilee grinned as she penned a quick note on a sheet of plain paper that the doctor provided. "Want to rethink that tie, Logan?"

***

Logan was extremely thankful that he had worn the blasted tie when he and Jubilee walked into the Grand Ballroom. The room was full of expensively-dressed men and women, all dressed in perfect suits and dresses. Charles and Hank were circulating among the guests, greeting friends and acquaintances, and Jubilee was doing the same, with many blushes, to the group of scientists and doctors in the corner.

When Charles and Hank had returned, they had brought half the conference with them. Many of those there knew Jubilee; if not personally, then by reputation; and everyone had heard what had happened on the plane, as many of the passengers on the plane were actually lecturers and scientists on their way to the summit. While the news that she was a mutant may have shocked them, many of them counted it a blessing that she was, and had been on the plane. So there were a good deal more well-wishers than detractors.

There was, in fact only one person there who she heartily wished was not. Dr. Bruce Garrett was expounding now on the possibilities of her power on the world of physics, having taken her aside in order to do so. Jubilee disliked him immensely. He hadn't changed at all from the smart-ass kid in Professor Cohen's Advanced Particle Physics class; if anything, he had just gotten much more obnoxious. "Dr. Garrett," she finally interrupted him in mid-sentence, "Skip the hunt and tree the prey. What are you trying to get at?"

"I am saying, dear Dr. Lee, that I would appreciate your…cooperation…in the lab I am having built in Massachusetts," he said. "If I could observe your—abilities—in action in a controlled lab setting, I have no doubt that the papers I—we--could write will take the entire physical science community by storm!" And he was off again.

Jubilee grabbed his arm. "Wait. You mean you want to put me under a microscope, wire me up, and turn me into a lab rat?" she made a face. "I'm a human being, _Mister_ Garrett, not a lab specimen, some kind of exotic specimen you can confine to a laboratory and observe! What you're suggesting is a complete violation of the moral and ethical considerations that govern the scientific profession."

"I agree," Professor Cohen snapped, coming up behind them with Claudia on his arm. "Bruce, that was the stupidest, most amoral thing I've ever heard you say. Get your head put on right, boy, or believe me, someone sometime is going to straighten it out for you." He took Jubilee's arm, guiding her back to the rest of the party, as Bruce hissed behind her, "Believe me, Dr. Lee, I will find someone! You think you can just keep all those powers to yourself, not share them with anyone, and write all those papers and expect to take credit for them! Well, you have an important ability, and you have a duty to share them, and the discoveries, with all of the scientific community! You're being selfish!"

"Ignore him, my dear," Professor Cohen said, guiding Jubilee back to the refreshment table, where Logan was waiting and looking lost. "He is a pompous fool. I didn't like him when he was in my class; I like him even less now." As Jubilee took Logan's arm, feeling a bit better, all the noise in the room hushed, as the Queen stood.

At her gesture, Jubilee mounted the dais she sat in state on and swept a low curtsey. It had taken her hours of practice in front of a mirror to perfect that, after Xavier had informed her dryly that such a gesture was expected before royalty. The Queen held out her hand, and Jubilee, from her semi-bent position, pressed her forehead to the large, heavy ring of state. 'We are much obliged to you for the services you have rendered," the Queen announced, her voice sounding clear over the hush in the ballroom. "Our Heir, the young Prince, was in the business district that would have been destroyed in the conflagration had the plane you stopped not been stopped when it did." She took Jubilee's hands and raised her up, turning her around to face the assembled crowd. "We hereby confer upon Our benefactress the title of Duchess, in recognition of the great service she has done for Us and Our people." Jubilee stood dazed as cheers and applause erupted from the people around her.


	6. Introspection

Chapter 6: Introspection

Hank sat watching the young woman sitting in front of the isolated reaction chamber at a table facing the back wall of the lab. She had been staring at the multicolored swirl of atoms inside the box for some time, eyes blank, her mind plainly somewhere else. The messy pile of papers she had been scribbling notes on lay forgotten on the table beside her.

"A quarter for your thoughts," he said finally, breaking into her train of thought. Jubilee blinked, looked at him rather absently. "A quarter for your thoughts," he repeated

She laughed and turned to him, rotating her stool and propping her chin on her hands. "I thought that was, "'A penny for your thoughts'," she grinned.

"It is," Hank said amiably. "But with the weighty introspection you were indulging in, I thought it prudent that you be offered a bit more for your thoughts."

She laughed self-consciously. "I guess I have been a bit quiet today," she said, picking at a loose thread in the knee of her jeans. "I'd have thought you'd appreciate it, though," she continued. "I mean, all these years you've been down here in the labs enjoying the peace and quiet, and then I come home, barge in here, and steal a part of your lab for my uses. Then I start bringing in my Walkman and my rock music, and there goes your peace, shot to pieces."

"I did enjoy the solitude, yes," Hank admitted. "But there is such a thing as too much, Jubilee. There were times when this lab seemed like a lonely place. Truth be known, Jubilee, I did sometimes long for some company, and I was gratified to find my lonely little lab would have another occupant—even if we do not exactly share the same profession."

Jubilee got off her stool, walked over to him, and threw her arms around him. "I never knew," she said softly. "I'll try to spend more time down here with you." Hank patted her hands for a moment, enjoying the feel of her arms around him. Not that he had any feelings for her beyond basic friendship; but sometimes it was nice to have a simple hug from someone.

"Enough about me," he said finally, disengaging her arms, "What about you? What weighty thoughts were swirling through your mind just then?"

Jubilee sighed, sat down on air, and hooked the heels of her shoes on the nonexistent rungs of a nonexistent stool. "I was thinking about something someone said at the ball," she said. "The new doctor, Bruce Garrett--"

Hank made a dismissive noise, which stopped her in mid-sentence. "Bruce Garrett is no more a doctor than, say, Logan," Hank said sternly, "And with a much more abrasive personality. He was one of the speakers at the summit; and I must say that much of what he said at the podium was what your speech would have been about. He has read too many of your papers, and he has paraphrased them…he stops just short of plagiarism. That boy does not have a single original thought in his head. I am not, apparently, the only one who thinks so; your friend Professor Cohen seemed rather critical of the boy too." His tone softened as he looked at Jubilee. "You are a doctor, a true scientist and physicist, because you see…you observe…the reactions in the matter and environment around you. Then you try to understand what has happened, and you try to explain why it happened. Garrett observes reactions in the natural order of things, and then looks to books and papers and material that others have written in order to explain what he has seen. He does not try to form his own conclusions; he merely pirates others' ideas and makes them seem like his own.

"A piece of paper you receive from an institution of knowledge does not make one a scientist, Jubilee, no matter what the paper may say. A true scientist makes his or her own observations rather than relying on someone else's observations. So ignore what Mr. Garrett has said, because it is my opinion…and the opinion of several other of your colleagues…that Mr. Garrett's invitation to the summit was bought with his father's money, and not given due to merit, as yours was." He took off his glasses and looked at her with kind eyes. "Charles said much the same thing."

"Professor Xavier—said—that I…" Jubilee's voice trailed off, and she grinned, suddenly and delightedly. "Wow. That makes me feel a lot better."

"Hank and I share a very high opinion of your talents and abilities, Jubilee," Xavier said seriously. Jubilee turned to see him in his hoverchair entering the lab with a handful of papers, which he put down on Hank's table and looked at her seriously. "You are a constant source of surprise and pride for both of us. I will have to admit that I had my doubts when you chose physics as your major in college; you had never struck me as the type to get into heavy studying. Then you really got into it. I could see your dedication when you came back for visits. And when you received your doctorate and launched your career, I wished very much that your parents had lived to see the day their little girl grew up." His eyes were suspiciously bright as he said, "You surpassed our expectations, Jubilee, and we are proud of you. We love you."

Jubilee hugged him so tight his neck bones creaked. "I love you guys too," she sniffed into the collar of his shirt. "I never knew you were rooting for me all that time. And I wish my Mom and Dad could see me now, too." Xavier patted her back, blinking away tears of his own.

'Now," he said as she stepped back and accepted the tissue Hank handed her, "What brought this up?"

Jubilee sat back down on air, and drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them. "Bruce Garrett had what he called 'an interesting proposal' to make to me at the Queen's ball," she said. "He's building a lab out in Massachusetts, and he wants me to 'come work with him', as he puts it. What he really meant, as I discovered when I got him to stop beating around the damn bush, is that he wants to 'observe' me using my powers 'in a controlled laboratory setting' so that they can be studied, and discoveries made. I rather got the impression that he would be the one doing the observing, and getting the credit for the discovering, and I'd be nothing but a lab rat wired up and running his little maze."

"So what did you tell him?" Xavier asked her, carefully hiding his shock that the young man they were discussing could have been so arrogant as to have even spoken about this subject, much less to a superior in the field.

"I told him I had no intention of moving from my current location to his lab, and told him I thought his offer was disgusting. Professor Cohen expressed a similar dislike and we walked away. Just before I was out of earshot though, he told me I was being selfish, keeping all my discoveries a secret and claiming I just 'made' these discoveries." She dropped her chin to her folded knees, stared at her shoes. "I wonder if that's really what I'm doing. I mean, some of the stuff I've discovered I can do with my powers have a lot of applications for the outside world. Do I really have the right to keep all that power and knowledge to myself and leave the rest of the world to make the discovery at some future time? Don't I have the responsibility to use my powers to do as much good as possible, and share it with everyone so that they can be applied to many situations that need it?"

Xavier propped his elbows up on the table of his hoverchair and steepled his fingers. "Jubilee, why aren't we sharing the Shi'ar technology we have with the rest of the world?"

Jubilee looked at him skeptically. "Are we getting a bit off-topic here?"

"No. No, we're not, trust me," Xavier said. "Trust me. So why aren't we?"

"Because the world isn't ready to know there is an entire empire out in our backyard full of aliens who either want to annihilate us or make us into a subject world." She looked at Xavier with what could only be called a naughty grin. "After all, Lilandra has discussed with you the possibility of conquering Earth just so you would be accepted as her consort."

Xavier grinned dryly, but focused back on their conversation. "And the other reason?"

"Because a lot of the Shi'ar technology we have could be turned to offensive purposes, used to harm instead of help. And we can't risk upsetting the balance of power here, on earth."

"Now apply that to your own power, Jubilee," Hank said, picking up on where Xavier was going. "You've been gifted with your power because you can handle it. You know what it can do; you know how it can hurt, you know how it can help. Suppose someone with less understanding gets your power. What might that someone do with it? You have been sitting here for the last few months attempting to do different things with your power; you have figured out how to do things like walk on air, freeze air, and make diamonds. Yes," Hank said, eyes twinkling, "I saw you pick up that piece of carbon ore and compress the atoms to make a diamond out of it. Suppose someone found out you could do that. How do you think they might use that—or you—to do that for them?"

Jubilee digested that in silence, her eyes wide as she considered the possibilities. "I see what you mean," she said finally. "I had better stay here then. I'm not really being selfish, if you look at it that way."

"No, you're not," Xavier said, "Any more than I am being selfish keeping my hoverchair technology to myself and not sharing it with anyone." He grinned. "Now enough of that. There's a surprise waiting for you upstairs."

"Really?" Jubilee jumped off her invisible 'chair' and headed out the door. Xavier and Hank followed her as she got onto Xavier's elevator and waited for them.

It was quiet upstairs. She stepped off the elevator and blinked. "Where is everybody?" she wandered off into the formal dining room, then from there toward the informal one that sat just off the kitchen.

As soon as she rounded the corner the residents of the mansion jumped out from behind the chairs and yelled "Surprise!"

Jubilee blinked as Logan came up and grabbed her into a big bear hug. "It's my birthday today?" she said in surprise.

Jean laughed at her. "You were so busy thinking today you didn't even realize it?" she chided, hugging Jubilee. "Silly girl, forgetting your own birthday!"

There was a huge pile of presents waiting for her over on a table in the corner, and giant cake waiting for her in the middle of the table. 'Wow," she said, impressed. The cake had 'Happy Birthday Jubilee written on it, and there were twenty-five candles on it. She grinned as Jean began to light them one by one. They all sang Happy Birthday. Jean said, "Don't forget to make a wish!"

"Jean, I'm not thirteen anymore," Jubilee said, exasperated, but she closed her eyes for a brief moment before she folded her arms behind her back and blew out the candles. It was an old custom. At Jean and Scott's wedding there had been so many candles everyone thought she'd used her powers to wipe out all the flames in one breath. Since then everyone, whether they had the capability to blow out candles by means other than the physical, did the same thing. 

"What did you wish for?" Ororo said curiously as she pulled candles off the cake.

"If I told you what I wished for, it wouldn't come true," she said lightly, but Jean didn't miss the glance at Logan. She also didn't miss the glance Jubilee gave at the sapphire ring she wore on her right ring finger.

"Jean, watch out!" Scott grabbed the stack of plates Jean was carrying as they threatened to slip out of Jean's grasp. "Whew. Almost lost them, there!"

They all dug into the chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream happily, with a lot of talk and chatter. When everyone was done eating, Jubilee started into the big stack of presents. She opend them all, exclaiming at all the things she'd gotten, and got so wrapped up that she didn't realize there was nothing from Logan until the gifts were all gone. "Logan, you didn't get her anything?" Jean asked puzzled.

Logan reached into his pocket. "Here, Jubes," he said. 'It's small. I didn't want it ta get lost in the pile."

Jubilee's eyes lit up when she saw the tiny box, and then dulled when she opened it. "What's this?" she pulled a tiny key on a keyring out of the box.

Logan beckoned to her. Puzzled, she followed him to the dining room window, which overlooked the long drive up to the house. There, right outside the window, were two motorcycles, both identical, except one had a big red bow stuck to the seat. "Happy birthday, darlin'," he said.

Jubilee stared for a moment. "A motorcycle?" she said in astonishment. "You bought me a motorcycle?"

"Yeah," Logan said, picking up the disappointed tone in her voice and wondering what she was disappointed about. "It's exactly like mine. I thought ya'd like it."

Jubilee, looking at the window, tried to quell the tears stinging her eyes. She had thought that maybe Logan had gotten her something else…that box had been so very tiny…

Jean's voice suddenly broke into her thoughts. **Jubilee, what's the matter?**

**Nothing. Nothing at all.** Jubilee blinked away her tears and turned to Logan, hugging him so that her eyes would be dry when she finally did look at him squarely. "Now you have to teach me to ride it," she said with a smile when she finally pulled away.

Logan groaned theatrically. "Is it too late to take it back and git ya somethin' else?"

"Yep," Jubilee said, her eyes sparking as she grabbed his hand. "Come on. I want to take a ride on it. Let's go."

After they had gone, the guys looked rather puzzledly at the girls, who were shaking their heads grimly. "What happened?" Xavier finally asked Jean. "Perhaps it was me, but it seemed that Jubilee was not as enthusiastic with Logan's present as he thought she would be."

Ororo looked disbelievingly at the mystified looks on all the guys' faces. "Are we the only ones who got that?" she asked Jean.

Hank spoke into the silence. "I believe our resident firecracker was expecting something a bit smaller," he said, "indicative of a longer commitment." He considered. "Perhaps 'expecting' would be too strong a word," he said. "More like 'wishing', or 'hoping'."

They continued to look puzzled, and Jean began collecting plates with rather more clatter than necessary. "She was hoping Logan would propose," she said to Scott and the room at large.

"Y'mean Logan ain't proposed yet?" Remy said in disbelief. "What dat sapphire ring he buy her for, den?"

"It was a present." Jean spread a sheet of plastic wrap over the cake and tucked the ends under the plate. "He didn't buy it with a proposal in mind." She picked up the stack of plates and said, "Ororo, do you want to speak to him, or should I?"

***

Logan lay on the bed, idly flipping channels. Jubilee was downstairs in the lab, finishing up some last-minute something or other that she'd been working on before the party that afternoon. He was about to go find her when there was a tap at the door. "Logan?" said a voice softly.

"Yeah, 'Ro," he said, sitting up. "C'mon in."

The bedroom door opened and Ororo came in, her white nightgown whispering around her legs. "Logan, did you notice anything odd about Jubilee's behavior at her party this afternoon?"

His ears pricked up. Finally he might get some answers. "Yeah, as a matter of fact I did. Did she tell ya anythin'?"

Ororo seated herself in Jubilee's desk chair and set her cup of tea on the only patch of clear surface she could see. "She did not have to, Logan. We—Jean and I—could see what was wrong where you could not."

He bit back the impatient growl and sighed. "So what was wrong?" he asked her with exaggerated patience.

"Jubilee was hoping you would present her with something smaller," she answered him. "Logan, when you bought her that sapphire ring, when she opened it she thought you were going to propose to her, and she was all ready to accept. Then you told her it was merely a present. Today she saw the size of the key box, and again she thought you would propose. And again you did not. She is twenty-five, Logan. You might have an indefinite lifespan, but Jubilee does not. She was waiting for you to propose to her, Logan, and you disappointed her again today."

Logan belatedly realized his mouth was open, and closed it.

Storm hid her amusement and continued, "There are many things that can happen, Logan. Nearly dying in the plane crash brought home to her rather sharply that life is finite. Life as one of the X-Men can sometimes be even shorter. And there is always the possibility that something could happen to you that you would not be able to heal from, and she will be left with regrets. You don't want that, Logan." Ororo picked up her tea and stood. "Think about it, Logan. You have enough regrets to live with for a lifetime. Don't do that to her." Logan was still staring dumbly as Ororo closed the bedroom door behind her.


	7. Accident

Chapter 7: Accident

Jubilee looked up as the big man marched across the floor toward her. "Hey, Moose," she greeted him with a smile.

He opened his arms wide. "Hey, little Lady," he said. "No big hug for yer ol' pal Moose?" She put down her drink and stood up to hug him, but even he could tell it wasn't her usual enthusiastic hug. He held her at arms length, studied her. "Bin a while since you been here," he said. "Seen ya on TV savin' that planeful'a people. Yer a pretty powerful gal, all right, and I glad I'm on yer side!"

"Thanks, Moose," she said quietly, sitting back down. He was about to turn around and head back to the bar when he heard her mutter, "Least someone does."

He turned back around and squeezed his big frame into the seat across from her. "Alright, little Lady, I know you're not all right now," he said, leaning over the table and folding his arms on the surface. He dropped his jovial rough-dude façade. "Want to tell your friend Moose about it?"

"Nah," Jubilee tossed back the rest of her drink. "Nothing you could do about it anyway."

"Try me," he said, sitting back and wrapping his ankles around the base of the table.

Jubilee shook her head. "No."

He looked at her for a moment, thoughtfully, then took a guess. "What's Logan done now?" He rethought that. "Or not done?"

She looked up, startled. "How'd you know?" 

He knew he'd hit the nail--if not on the head, then pretty close to it. He also caught the almost unconscious twisting of the ring on her finger. He studied it out the corner of his eye, watching her at the same time. Pretty. Gold, with little blue sapphires the same color as her eyes. He could guess where that had come from. "The ring," he said. "Must be pretty serious if he's proposing to you, Lady, and I think you should accept. From what I've seen you love him, and I know he loves you from what he's said to me the few times I've seen him since you…introduced…me to him."

"No!" Jubilee brought her fist down on the table in a pounding smash, and made the glasses jump. "That's the problem, Moose, he hasn't proposed to me. Yesterday was my twenty-fifth birthday. He bought me a motorcycle." She hiccuped. "There wasn't a present for me from him in the pile of gifts my friends gave me, and when I asked him he took this little box out of his pocket. I was so sure it was a ring; I was all excited when I opened it…and inside was a little silver key." She hiccuped again, her eyes filling with tears as she choked out, "He'd bought me a motorcycle. Exactly like his. We have his-and-hers bikes, jackets, and helmets now…but we don't have his-and-hers rings yet, and oh, Moose, that's the one thing I really, really want more than anything else right now!" And now the tears spilled down over her cheeks as she started to cry.

Moose got up, squeezed himself into the seat beside her, and pulled her to him, wrapping his big arms around her and whispering soft sounds into her ears. When he saw a man at a nearby booth look at them, he said to her, "We're attracting too much attention here, Lady, let's go outside where we can talk."

Jubilee stood up, slapped a twenty on the table to pay for her drinks and walked outside with him. Moose lit up a cigarette as they leaned up against the side of the building, avoiding the river of rain running down from the roof. For a while all he did was stand and smoke, hugging her shoulders to him as she sobbed softly. When she finally sniffled into silence, he said, "He's just got to do it in his own time, little Lady. Guys like us don't like to get hurried along. How long have you known him, anyway?"

"Since I was fourteen." And then, since he didn't seem to have to go anywhere, Jubilee began to pour out hers and Logan's history together.

Moose listened in silence as she told him about how her parents had died, how she'd arrived at the mansion, how Logan had taken her under his wing and taught her how to take care of herself. How she'd been there, for him, always, through everything, and finally, she quietly told him about Bastion. About the hurt and anger and anguish she'd felt, that for all the times she'd been there for him, the one time she really needed him he hadn't been there for her. He read between the lines, piecing together what he'd heard from the news about the man named Bastion's vendetta, and how he hated mutants, and tried to picture his little Lady in the clutches of the madman. The picture he got was more complete than Jubilee realized, and his big fist clenched as he realized just how much she'd been hurt. 

For all she'd gone through, she was an incredibly strong, smart, sassy girl. Again, as he looked at the short little Asian woman beside him, Moose felt again a pang of regret for his own life. He'd had a chance; in high school he'd dated for a long time a spunky, sassy little thing like Jubilee; he'd been tempted to propose to her, but never got up the nerve. Then one night she'd been driving down the road when a couple of street racers had streaked through the intersection where her car had stalled. And that had been it. She had died, of course; it was the natural result of getting your Camry plowed into by two nitro-fueled souped-up Acuras going ninety miles an hour. He'd run off and joined the military after that, in an attempt to get away from the grief he'd felt. He did a tour of duty, decided he didn't like it, and got out as soon as Desert Storm was over. 

Now he worked in a small motorcycle shop he owned during the day and worked a pool stick in the bars during the night. He lived in a loft over the small garage he owned and made his drinking money from; not that he really needed it, since what he won in all the pool games was more than enough to cover his meager living expenses and his drinking. He didn't drink to drunkenness; he drank to take the edge off the sadness he felt at the paucity of his life. The only time he felt alive, felt like he had a purpose, was when he was picking bar fights.

Until recently. The little spitfire he'd met at Rex's that one night had fleeced him, pure and simple. All that evening, even as his anger mounted at the way she'd neatly cleaned him out he'd been admiring her spunk and sass. He'd admired her even more when he'd thrown a punch at her and she'd ducked out of the way. He'd been appalled at himself afterward; he'd never hit a woman in his life, and he'd sworn to himself he never would. After that, he'd hung out at Rex's till she came back, and he'd apologized. She had taken his apology like a lady, smiling at him and bought him that night's drinks, and they'd been firm friends after that.

Then one week he suddenly seemed to run into her at every bar that had a pool table, and he'd sworn that she was following him until he stopped her outside Crossroads one night and asked her why she was following him. She'd laughed, and explained she was trying to raise enough money to buy a gift for a very close friend of hers. He'd been intrigued when he learned it was a male friend she was trying to buy for, and even more interested when she told him the price of the gift she wanted to buy. Had she only known it, he could have given her every penny of the money she needed right there, but he'd restrained himself because she brought a kind of joy to his life he hadn't felt in a long while. The week they'd spent bar-hopping, cleaning out every poor fool who thought that the two of them were easy pickings, had been one of the most memorable he'd spent in his life. Then, at the end of the week when they'd counted up their winnings, he realized it wouldn't make half of what she needed. He'd gone into his bank and flustered the teller half out of her wits when he made a withdrawal to cover what remained of the money Jubilee had needed for what she wanted to get. 

He was very seldom at his bank; what he needed usually came out of the till at his garage, and his friend at the garage, Tony, usually took the cash to the bank and deposited it into the garage's accounts. Moose hadn't bothered to look at his bankbooks in quite a while; he knew, with a certainty, that there was quite a nice balance in both the garage account and in his personal account. He didn't spend much; the only thing he had that required any money was his bike, and that only cost him parts; he did all the work on his bike himself. His income was at least double what he spent every month; and he'd started seriously considering what to do with all his money after Tony had retired. After Jubilee had left, he'd been seized with a sudden inspiration and had gone to a lawyer. Jubilee didn't know it, but she was going to get everything he had when he finally went on to raise hell in heaven.

After that, knowing he now had someone to plan for, to care for, he'd started planning his spending and income more carefully. He just wished he could be there when his lawyer handed her the copy of the will that said she owned a garage, his bike, and almost three hundred thousand dollars.

And he'd been surprised as hell when he found out she'd taken up with his old barfighting opponent. Of all the people he could see her with, Logan wasn't the first one that came to mind. She had asked him, almost jokingly, if he thought she'd fall for one of the soft boys at college. He hadn't told her that he had indeed thought that. Despite her sass, he still couldn't see her spending the rest of her life down here in the dirt and sordidness of seedy two-bit trashy bars. She was made for better stuff than that.

He was going to have it out with Logan, he thought grimly as Jubilee bid him goodbye and headed out into the rain to where her bike was parked.

His opportunity came sooner than he thought it would. About half an hour after the little Lady'd left, the devil himself walked into the bar. He took a quick look around, spotted Moose, and headed for him. "Hey," Logan tapped Moose's shoulder where he sat at the bar. "Ya seen Jubes?"

Moose took a long swallow of his beer, finishing it in one last gulp, then seized Logan's arm in a vise-like grip. Logan growled and swung at Moose. Moose dodged it and bashed a fist into Logan's nose. After that, he didn't care where the punches landed; he was going to pound some sense into Logan's head. He gave as good as he got; by the time the bouncers got them both outside, both men were groaning form an assortment of bruises, cuts, scrapes, and scratches. He noticed that Logan hadn't popped those deadly silver claws Moose had seen several times in the past, though.

They both sat outside, watching the rain and panting heavily from the fight. Logan recovered first and said, "Jubilee's gonna have our hides fer beatin' the crap outta each other."

"I know," Moose groaned. "I hadda, though."

"Ya hadda? Why?" Logan looked at Moose in surprise.

"Cause ya hurt her, bastard," Moose growled, opening the one eye he could still see out of. The other had been at the receiving end of one of Logan's fists a few minutes back. "She was in here earlier, cryin' her eyes out over a drink 'bout her birthday present."

"Cryin'?" Logan sat up. "Thought she liked the bike!"

"She did. She liked the fact that she an' you's got his-and-hers bikes, jackets, and helmets. What she was cryin' 'bout was that ya all ain't got his-and-hers finger ornaments."

"Finger ornaments?"

Moose groaned and buried his face in his hands. "My god. I dunno how she puts up wit' ya!" He sat up. "Yeah, dude. Finger ornaments. Ya know, the kind what gets exchanged in front of a minister? The kind that come with the words 'I do'?"

"Oh. Them kind." Logan sat back against the side of the building. "It's just…I ain't sure it's what she wants, y'know? We only been an 'item', as they been callin' us at home, since June. 'S only been five months. Before then, she was globe trottin', an' I didn't see a whole lotta her. I known her since she was a kid; I still ain't sure what she feels ain't obsession, or if it's really love, y'know? I don't want her ta make a mistake."

Moose reached over and smacked his fist into Logan's forehead. It hurt his fist like hell; but Logan's head bounced back from his fist and struck the wall. That was worth the sore fist. 

"Ow! What the hell was that fer?" Logan rubbed the back of his head.

"Fer bein stupid!" Moose hauled Logan to his feet. "What the hell makes ya think she's makin' a mistake? Ya gotta be the blindest damn bat I ever seen! She loves ya! She ain't had no thought in her head fer anyone but you ever since I known her. I tried ta get with her once, an' she didn' wanna have nothin' ta do wit' me!" He growled. "Do yerself a favor, and propose to the girl 'fore ya regret it. Look, Logan, I dated a girl in high school just like the little Lady. Carly was the light o' my life; never wanted ta go out wit' no one but her. If I'd'a proposed when my heart tol' me to, I'd probably be married right now, with a pack o' brats and possibly grandbrats. Instead I'm out here pickin' fights and livin' in a loft over my shop 'cause I waited too long. There was a car accident one night; coupla street racers plowed inta her car. She died instantly. There ain't never been nobody fer me since her, an' there never will be. I didn't know what I had till it was gone. Don't let that happen to ya, man. Or to the little Lady. I like ya both, an' I care 'bout her, an' I _hate_ seein' a woman cry. 'Specially her. So go find her and tell her ya gonna marry her." He raised a fist. "'Fore I hit ya again."

Logan stood up. "All right, all right! I'm goin! Don't haveta hit me again! How long ago was she here?"

Moose stuck his head in the bar and took a quick gander at the clock on the wall. "'Long 'bout an hour and a half by now."

Logan growled, dug some change out of his pocket and went to the pay phone. He picked up the receiver, dialed a number, and waited. "Jean?" he said when the other end picked up. "Listen, is Jubes home yet?" Silence for a time. "Yeah, I'm here at Rex's with her friend Moose, and he says she was going like an hour and a half ago. She ain't home yet?" short pause. "Okay. I'll find her an' bring her home." He hung up, looking grim. "She ain't home yet," he said. "Usually she comes home right after one o' these bar-hoppin' nights. I gotta go find her." He jumped into his pickup truck.

"I'll go with ya," Moose said flatly, getting in the passenger side. Logan was too worried to demur.

They first took the route Logan knew Jubilee used to go home. No Jubes. Past Harry's. No Jubes. Logan stopped at Crossroads and stuck his head in, asking the bartender if he'd seen Jubilee. Nope. He was starting to get desperate.

Half an hour later, he was past desperate and well into afraid. Although the big man didn't show it as much, Logan could tell that he felt it too. They were cruising down an alley not far from Rex's when Logan saw the distinctive red color of Scott's Mustang, and he sped up to pull up beside Jean and Storm. "Where's yer Miata?" he called to her. 

Jean leaned out the window. "Rogue's checking downtown in it," she said. "Scott's in the Cobra. We took the Mustang." She stopped abruptly as she saw the other occupant of the truck. "Hello," she said pleasantly, if briefly.

"Jean, this is Moose. He's a friend of Jubilee's. Moose, this is Jean, Jubilee's best friend." Moose nodded to Jean. Then he had a thought.

"Hey. One time when the little Lady got too drunk to go home I took her to my loft and let her sleep it off there," he said. "It was a few years ago, but I'll bet not a lot gets by her. She might still remember how to get there, and she knows where I hide the spare key. Can we check?"

"Sure." Logan said amiably, and turned the truck down the winding turns and alleys until they reached Moose's Motorcycle Mania. Logan's heart almost stopped when he saw the battered, beat-up motorcycle lying on its side in front of the door. He jumped out of the cab, followed closely by Moose, and took the external steel steps up to the loft two at a time. The door was slightly ajar, and he pushed it open slowly.

Jubilee lay in the middle of the floor in a small pool of her own blood. The smears from the front door to where she was, and the outstretched hand, showed she'd been trying to reach the phone and had never made it. Moose took her shoulders gently, rolled her over. Her clothes were torn, and she was bleeding from a deep knife stab under her ribs. Her purse was gone. Logan bent over her, checked her breathing, and then cried urgently, "Jubes! Jubilee! Come on, darlin', wake up! Jubes!" 

The eyelashes fluttered, and the blue eyes opened. "Logan?" she whispered. "Logan, oh, help, please, I hurt…owwww…" she moaned. The eyes closed, and no amount of shaking was going to wake her up again. Logan slid an arm under her knees, lifted her gently in his arms, and stood up. "I gotta take her home," he said grimly. Moose looked at him doubtfully.

"She really needs a hospital, Logan."

"We got the best medical care in the world right at home," Logan growled. "Trust me. I'll call ya when we know what happened and if she's okay."

"I'll take care of her bike," Moose said as he held open the truck door for Logan to ease his unconscious burden inside. "Call me, Logan, please," he said worriedly as Logan slammed the door. Logan nodded and got in, roaring away from the man standing beside the battered motorcycle. Moose watched them out of sight, and bent over the cycle, picking it up and wheeling it in as best as he could into his garage.


	8. Proposal

Chapter 8: Proposal

"Oh my stars and garters," Hank exclaimed as Logan hurried into the medlabs, followed by Betsy, Remy, Warren, Bobby, and Charles. "Here, Logan, put her here. Charles, where is Jean, I'll definitely need help with Jubilee…"

"Jean, Rogue, Storm, and Scott are on their way back even as we speak," Xavier said as Betsy efficiently began to remove Jubilee's torn, bloody clothing. "Logan found her at the home of a friend of hers, and thought it prudent to return here immediately instead of stopping to look for the others."

"A wise decision," Hank said approvingly, beginning to run one of the Shi'ar bioscanners over the prone body. "Hmm. She's lost a lot of blood, she may need a transfusion. Deep puncture wound under the lower ribs…Betsy, put some pressure right there, slow the bleeding down…" 

The door flew open and Jean rushed in. "Hank, Charles told me Logan found Jubilee…oh, no…"

She froze, dismayed, at the sight of Jubilee's still form lying on the table under Hank's hands. 

Ororo shook her head. "I believe Hank and Jean need to get to work," she said to the watching X-Men. "Perhaps we should leave them to it." Xavier turned his hoverchair and left, followed by the others and lastly by Betsy. Logan found himself hustled out along with them, and sat down heavily on the couch just outside the door. The others, sensing his need to be alone, started to wander off, except for Xavier.

"How did you find her?" Xavier asked Logan quietly.

Logan braced his elbows on his knees and propped his chin on his hands. "I was out lookin' fer Jubes," he began. "There's this one guy she likes, he's a friend o' hers, and I asked him if he'd seen her. He an' I got into a bit of a scrap before he finally told me he'd seen her at Rex's an hour and a half ago. I called Jean here an' asked her if Jubes'd come in yet, and she said no. So Moose an' I went drivin' around for a while lookin' for her, till he finally remembered that she knew where he lived and maybe she might have gotten inta his loft.

"So we went to his place, and Jubes was there. Chuck, she was lyin' on the floor, in a puddle o' her own blood. I ain't never seen that mucha Jubes's blood all over her and outsidea her, an' it scared me ta death. I just brought her back here myself as fast as I could."

There was silence for a time, finally broken by Charles. "So what did you get into a fight about this time?"

Logan ran a hand through his hair. "Jubes was down at Rex's this evening drinkin' a little," he said. "She an' Moose got inta a conversation, and she told him she was disappointed that I didn't propose to her yesterday on her birthday." He growled in exasperation. "He went an' started beatin' up on me cause he said she was cryin' and he hated seein' her cry. Told me to get my ass in gear an' ask her a'ready, 'fore somethin' happens. Life's too short, he said, to waste time." He dropped his head into his hands. "Chuck, that stab wound looked pretty bad. What if…what if…" he couldn't finish.

Very, very quietly, Xavier finished for him. "If she doesn't make it." More silence. Then, "Logan, if I may ask…why haven't you?"

Logan looked up, surprised. "Chuck, I'd'a thought you'd be the las' person ta ask me that question," he said. "It don't bother ya that I'm old enough ta be her father?"

Xavier considered. "Chronological years aside," he said, "No. Jubilee is a great deal more mature, emotionally and mentally, than a great many people I know. And with your healing factor, you are much better equipped to handle her…youthful energy…than many of her contemporaries. And although she has not yet said anything about it, Hank tells me she has been working with her powers to slow down the aging process and stop the slow deterioration of the body's cells. Assuming that she is successful, she could theoretically hold off the aging process as long as you could. So no, I don't see a reason for you to refuse to propose to her, if that is what you and her both wish. And as she obviously wants you, and you want her, I really don't see why you're hesitating."

Logan sat there feeling as though he'd just been handed a check for a million bucks. To be able to settle down with Jubilee, to live with her and be with her for the rest of her life, which might now be drastically longer thanks to her powers…it was everything he hoped for, and more. Still…

"Chuck, I don' know who I am. I don't know where I came from, or if I got family somewhere, or what my past holds. What if I done something that we fin' out 'bout years from now, an' she finds she can't live with it? What do I do then?"

Xavier tilted his head, considering. "If that time comes, Logan, then you cross that bridge when you get to it. Jubilee loves you; love can find ways to forgive almost anything. And I seriously doubt that there is anything quite so terrible in your past; your very personality precludes the possibility that you may have done something terrible; you are simply not the type. And if that love is as strong as I suspect it is, you both will make it through any trip of self discovery you may embark on in the future." Xavier gripped Logan's shoulder firmly. "Think about it, Logan."

The door opened, and Hank came out. His white coat was stained with blood, and he had a weary look in his eyes. Logan's eyes widened, fearing the worst, but Hank shook his head. "She's still alive, Logan," he said. "But it will be touch and go for a while. The stab wound was quite deep; she lost a lot of blood, and her lung was punctured by the blade. One rib was also broken; both injuries will require time to heal." He sat down on the couch beside Logan as he dropped the coat into the wastebasket kept for just these occasions. 

"We will need to wait until she recovers consciousness before we can find out what really happened, but I can piece together some of it by the wounds she sustained. She must have been stopped by people…several, by the looks of it. There was some type of scuffle; my guess is that she went down an alley and ran into a gang of some sort. They took her purse, from the welt on her arm where the strap was cut; then she was pushed down onto her back. I assume they meant to assault her physically, as there are abrasions on her shoulderblades. She fought; I found dirt and epithelial cells under her nails. They tore her clothes; at that point she must have managed to get away from them somehow and tried to run. She was tackled from behind, and that was when she was stabbed. I don't believe it was deliberate; she may have fallen on the knife or been stabbed by it in the scuffle. She fell, they became alarmed, and they ran. She got back on her bike and tried to reach the nearest place of safety she could find, which I assume was her friend's loft." At Logan's nod, Hank said, "It was a good thing your friend decided to check there, because if he hadn't she may not have made it. I believe she will, but it will be touch and go there for a while." 

He studied Logan. "She made some sort of effort to try to heal herself. The molecules of matter that make up cells and body tissue looked like they had begun to pull together; however, she does not have the medical knowledge to fix biological wounds. I will have to correct that oversight when she awakens. Now, in the meantime, Jean is quite tired, and you don't look as though you will be getting any sleep anytime soon, so if you would be so kind as to go in and sit with Jubilee while Jean gets some rest, I believe she would be grateful."

Jean was slouched half-asleep in the chair beside Jubilee's bed when Logan walked in. "Jean," he said, tapping her shoulder. "Jean."

She opened one eye, then sat up. "She's still asleep?" Jean asked, though it was more of a question.

Logan nodded. "Yeah, Jean, she's still asleep. Why don't you go get some sleep yourself; I'll stay with her." Jean nodded, too sleepy to argue, got up, and stumbled out of the room a bit unsteadily.

Logan sat down in the vacant chair, reaching for the limp hand lying on the bed. "Jubes," he said, his whisper loud in the room, silent but for the low, reassuring beep of the machines monitoring her condition. He sighed, gripped her hand tighter, and marshaled his thoughts. "Jubes, I love ya. I haveta say I never loved anyone the way I love ya. Not like I did Mariko, not like Silver Fox, and definitely not Viper. Yer not like any of them. I thought what I felt fer them was love, but it's nothin' like what I feel fer ya. I keep tryin' ta put it off, tryin' ta tell myself ya deserve better'n me, that yer just obsessed with me, but I can' keep fooling myself. Ya do love me, as much as I love ya. If ya didn't, ya wouldn't be experimentin' wit' trying ta slow down yer aging. So, Jubes, if ya really want me to…if ya really, really love me, then, Jubes, I want ya ta marry me."

Jubilee's eyes fluttered open, and she pinned him with a bright sapphire gaze. She blinked, and her lips moved, but he couldn't hear her voice. He didn't have to. 

There was a light in her eyes he'd never seen before.

***

Moose looked up from what he was doing when he heard the sound of a motorcycle engine. A loud engine. And a good one, at that. He grinned and stood up, wiping his hands on the greasy shop towel he was using and walked out into the office of the shop. "What can I do fer ya…" he trailed off as he saw who was waiting for him. "Logan!" He dropped the towel and leaned over the counter. "How's the little Lady?" 

"She'd fine," Logan said, taking off the distinctive black helmet with its three silver slashes and shaking his head. "She's got a broken rib, punctured lung, some cuts and scrapes, but otherwise she's okay." He grinned wolfishly. 'She's confined to bed until she heals. I managed to wrangle out of her the story of what happened, and I'm going looking for revenge. Wanna come?"

"Sure!" Moose agreed. "Let me close up shop here and I'll come with you."

Logan followed him back into the rear of the garage and watched as he began to pick up the scattered tools lying about all over the floor. He surveyed Jubilee's bike. "She wasn't kidding when she said the gang was tough," he said.

"What gang?" Moose straightened. "I know most of them around here; they all know the little Lady and they know not to touch her. She has my protection."

Logan blinked. "Well, someone didn't get the message, or they thought she was easy pickin's." he said. "Jubes was on her way home and she decided to try a shortcut. She cut through an alley, and at the other end a gang of guys was waiting for her. She took off on her bike, they followed on theirs. They chased her almost halfway across the city. She doubled back and was only about a block from here when her bike ran outta gas and stalled. So she got off her bike and prepared to fight. That was when a couple of guys jumped out from behind a dumpster. They'd herded her through the whole city. Back to point one.

"One guy cut the strap o' her purse. Then three o' the guys got offa their bikes an' closed in on her. She tried ta run, but they grabbed her an' threw her ta the ground, an' tried ta rape her. Moose, I don't know how mucha her past she mighta told ya, but she was…hurt…pretty bad…a few years back, and she ain't quite healed mentally from the memories. She still gets nightmares 'bout that stuff that happened ta her.

"Anyway, she had a flashback, and her power went rogue on her. She blasted a coupla them and took off runnin'. They tried ta grab her again, an' one o them tried ta stop her wit' a knife. She ran into the blade; got stabbed. She screamed, fell, an' they ran off. Jubes said they were wearin' black leather jackets with red eagles on 'em. Ya know a gang that runs 'round here wearin' jackets like that?"

"Yeah," Moose said grimly. "They call 'emselves the Bloody Eagles. They play like they all big an' bad, but they do mainly petty crimes. Stealin', runnin' a chop shop for cars and bikes, breakin' an' enterin' shops, muggin', pickin' pockets." He took off his shop apron and washed his hands at a sink at the rear of the garage. "Been hankerin' ta go take 'em down myself. The only problem is that there are too many of 'em. Ten in the gang altogether. I may be a gamblin' man, but them odds is too much fer me."

"Well, eight now," Logan grinned a wolfish smile. "Jubes got a couple o' them. Think the two o' us can handle eight guys?"

Moose growled. "I could handle all eight o' them myself if it was fer the little Lady," he said. "Do anythin' fer her." He wheeled his bike out from the back of the shop where it was wrapped with canvas, and got on it. "Ya given anymore thought ta what I said 'fore we went ta fin' the little Lady?"

"'Bout makin' an honest woman outta her?" Logan grinned as he pulled his helmet back on. "Yep. Did that when she woke up. She said--"

"She said yes, I know," Moose grinned widely. "Didn't haveta tell me that, I knew a'ready she'd say yes, the way she was talkin' 'bout how disappointed she was that ya hadn't done it a'ready." He punched Logan none too gently in the arm. "So what took ya so long, ol' man?"

Logan paused. "A lotta stuff," he admitted. "Didn' know if she really wanted it; didn' know how our friends were gonna react ta us 'makin' a match outta it', as the Cajun said. Wasn't sure if I really wanted her ta hitch herself ta a guy old 'nuff ta be her father. Lotta reasons." He shook his head. "Had a talk with a friend o' ours. He pointed out ta me that it didn' really matter what other people thought; if it was what both of us really wanted it, he didn' see a reason why we shouldn't. So I went ahead an' asked when she woke up. Soon's our doctor allows her up and outta bed, we gonna go get a ring fer her and start plannin' the hitchin'." He grinned. "Told Jubes ya pounded some sense inta me, an' she said ya were definitely invited."

Moose grinned. "Great." He pulled on his own helmet, got on his bike and started it up, and looked at Logan. "Shall we go?"

The two bikes drove up and down the streets where Moose said they usually hung out. It wasn't long before they spotted a red eagle crudely spray-painted onto the door of an apparently abandoned warehouse. They stopped, dismounted, and Logan popped his claws preparatory to slashing down the door.

"Wouldn't do that if I was you, short stuff," came a rough voice from behind them. Moose and Logan both turned, to see a big black man holding a tire iron in one hand as easily as if it was a matchstick. "This here's our territory; and we don't like intruders. Ya ain't walkin' away from here alive."

"Yeah?" Logan crouched into a 'ready' position. "Ya gonna stop us?"

"Yep." The man began smacking the tire iron against the palm of his other hand. Logan didn't allow himself to get distracted by the movement; all his senses were focused on the man in front of him. And on the ones around him; he could smell at least six more hiding behind cardboard boxes, dumpsters, trashcans, and abandoned cars littering the alley.

"If yer plannin' on surprisin' us with the rest o' yer gang, ya can tell 'em all ta come out," Moose said easily, unwrapping a length of chain from around his bike and swinging it experimentally. "Ain't much o' a surprise if we a'ready know they're there." His eyes narrowed. "Ain't I seen ya before?"

"Yeah, the las' time I run into the both of ya at Rex's I was tryin' ta git wit' a chick and ya cut inta my fun." The man scowled.

"Mighta been fun ta you, but it wasn't fer her," Moose growled, the chain swinging around a little faster. "Ain't fun fer the little Lady bein' gang-raped by the likes o' you."

Men started popping out from behind various pieces of junk all around the two men. The guy in front of Logan narrowed his eyes and snapped, "This ain't yer stompin' ground, Moose Montgomery. Yer place is back up there." He jerked his thumb behind him, toward the direction Moose and Logan had come. "So why're ya down here? Ya thought ya was too good ta join us 'fore, so why you here now?"

"Cause ya hurt a real good friend o' mine," Moose growled. "That chick, as ya called her, was mindin' her own business goin' home from Rex's when ya all jumped her. Stole her purse an' tried ta rape her. Ya got some payback comin'."

"We ain't touch nobody—Wait. Wuzzat the little chink chick we got down on the other night?" He laughed. "She had a fine piece a ass, man, looked all nice and purty. Scream all nice an purty fer us when we took off those little panties." He pulled from his pocket a couple scraps of pink satin and fluttered it in front of Logan's and Moose's startled faces. Logan could smell Jubilee's scent from where he stood…and something else. His nose wrinkled as he smelled the man's own body odor on Jubilee's underclothes.

The man shoved the bra and underwear back into his pocket and returned to swinging the tire iron. "Oh, yeah," he smirked. "Chick looked real good, too. Nice tits. Wanted ta get myself a mouthful' a them, but as soon as I got my mouth on her she went nuts. She blasted me and one of my buddies with these firework kinda things and took off runnin." He snickered. "Was so satisfyin' hearin' her scream when the knife slipped between her ribs, man, I wanted ta f**k her right there, but we heard sounds an' thought someone was comin', so we ran. Too bad. Maybe when I get done wit' ya two, I go back an' fin' her an' finish what I started."

The man never got another word out. Moose went from a dead standstill to full action, holding the middle of the chain. One end flicked out, wrapped around the tire iron, and yanked the thing out of the man's hand, while the other end slammed with considerable force into the guy's jaw. He shouted in surprise and pain, and the fight started.

A short, scruffy, bad-smelling guy jumped out in front of Logan and swung a length of chain at him. Logan swiped at the chain with his claws, watching the man's face go slack with surprise as the chain fell into dozens of pieces in front of him. Logan didn't wait, but pressed up his advantage by stepping forward as Stinky fell back, and swiped a claw across the man's face. Stinky screamed, his hands coming up to cover his face, and turned and ran as blood dripped to the ground from between his fingers. Logan didn't spare a second glance, but tore into the next man, who had a section of lead pipe in his hand. This guy was slower on the uptake than Stinky was, and just stopped and stood still, staring at the stub of pipe left in his hands. Logan raised a fist. Lead Pipe looked at those three deadly adamantium claws, dropped the pipe, and fled.

Moose and the leader circled each other, each watching for an opportunity. "Aw, ya sweet on her," the man said sarcastically. Moose growled at him. "Ya got inta her pants, huh? How 'bout her, huh? She all nice and tight for ya?"

Moose swung the chain at him and missed. The chain wrapped around the guy's fist instead. The man grimaced, and yanked. Moose lost his grip on the chain and stumbled back, feeling the metal links burn the palm of his hand as it slipped from his grasp. The gang leader swung the chain at Moose, catching Moose's ear with the edge of the chain. Moose howled in pain as he fell. His hands curled around something on the ground; it was the leader's tire iron. He stood, gripping the tire iron, and the two men circled around each other, looking for an opportunity to strike.

Logan snorted as his fourth opponent ran off down the alley. Cowards. Didn't have a problem pickin' on a lady or someone weaker than themselves, but they sure did have a problem when it came to someone their own size. He glowered at the others around him; three more men, each holding some scrap of garbage. No serious weapons, unless ya counted the guy who thought he could sneak up behind him holding a knife. Logan waited until he smelled the burst of sweat that signified an incipient strike, and whirled.

His two outer claws pinned the man to the concrete wall behind him as the single inner claw just barely dimpled the thin skin of Knife Boy's neck. Knife Boy dropped the knife. It fell from his nerveless grasp, and Logan set his foot on top of it. Never taking his eyes off the man, he picked it up from the ground and set the point of it against Knife Boy's ribs. "Ya wanna get what ya gave her?" he said softly, dangerously. His nostrils flared at the smell of the man's fear.

"No, no, man, I don't, Look, I jus' done what Mike tol' me to, I didn't know she was yer girl, I swear, I ain't never gonna bother her again…" And to Logan's complete disgust, he smelled urine as the guy soaked his pants. He stepped back form the man, yanking his claws out of the wall. A chunk of concrete clung to the end of his first claw, and he shook it in the guy's face. 

"Ya ever mess wit' her again, ya even look at her again, an' yer head's gonna look like this, bub, understand?" Knife Boy nodded fearfully, and Logan gave him a shove. "Get going, all of ya." As they ran out of the alley, he turned his attention to the last two combatants, Moose and Mike.

Moose lunged quickly, suddenly, not telegraphing his move by any body language, and caught Mike by surprise. Mike stepped back, quickly, to avoid the rush from the bigger man. Moose tackled him, sent him flying backward…

Right on top of a twisted scrap of metal that pointed upward.

Mike's body was speared neatly on the shard of twisted metal. Moose stared, started forward, horrified, but it was too late. Mike twitched once, and then the light went out of his eyes as he died.

Moose looked at him regretfully. "I wasn't going to kill him," he said. "Jus' scare him inta leavin' the little Lady alone. I didn't mean ta kill him."

Logan retracted his claws and rested a hand on Moose's shoulder. "Don't feel bad, Moose," he said. 'It was an accident. I don't think anyone's gonna miss him too much, but Jubes is gonna miss both o' us if we don't git movin'. Ain't gonna be long 'fore one o' his gang comes back ta fin' us." Logan looked speculatively at Moose as the two of them turned and headed back toward their bikes. "There ain't gonna be a street war over his sorry ass, is there?"

Moose considered. 'Naw, not likely," he said. "Stuff like this happens all the time around Hell's kitchen. And he wasn't really well liked, or well known, around here. Naw, he's gonna be chalked down as a missin' person who nobody's gonna miss at all."

Logan stopped Moose and put a hand on his arm. "Ya ain't gonna tell Jubes 'bout this, are ya?" he said. "She ain't gonna like it that ya killed somebody."

Moose held up both hands as he mounted his bike. "I ain't tellin' if you ain't," he said.

Logan nodded, then grinned suddenly. "Ain't never been on yer side o' a fight before," he said. "Kinda a change from beatin' each other up, huh?"

Moose's laugh echoed around the alley as they roared off.


	9. Tattoo

Chapter 9: Tattoo

Logan reached lazily across the bed to feel for the warmth of the woman beside him. When he didn't feel anything, he opened one eye. Her side of the bed was empty. He opened both, reached inside himself for the bond he'd discovered was there.

The feeling had mystified him, until he'd asked Jean about it. She had slipped into his mind, taken a look at what lay hidden there, and smiled. Then she'd explained it to him. Jubilee had spent enough time in his mind to have established a thin silver thread of psychic linkage with him. After Hank had finally deemed her healed enough to leave the medlab, she had gotten him to sleep and then spent the entire night psychically linked to him. She was exhausted, spent, and suffering from a headache that left her near-blind with the pain in the morning, but it had had the gratifying effect of linking her psychically with him. Now, wherever she was in the mansion, he could feel her presence in his mind. It 'looked' to him like a silver thread tied to his mind, with the other end stretching off, pulsing gently, to wherever she happened to be. Which, at this moment, was down in the medlab, presumably with Hank.

He got up, pulled on jeans and a T-shirt, and left their bedroom. Down the hall, downstairs, through the kitchen, to the basement. Then through the hidden door to the hidden sublevels beneath the mansion, where the medlabs, Danger Room, and other equipment lay.

As he pushed open the door to the medlab, he was startled to hear the sound of Jubilee's laughter. Jubilee, laughing? At this hour of the morning? She usually couldn't even manage a good morning kiss this early! As he turned around the corner from the main medical facilities to the lab proper, he saw Jubilee and Hank coming out of the lab. "Morning, darlin'," he said.

Jubilee squealed and ran up to him. "I finally got the hang of this molecular-level cellular regeneration thing!" she hugged him so tight his neck creaked.

"Whoa," Logan said, smiling at her nonetheless. "Words of one syllable only before breakfast please, Jubes."

She grinned and explained. "Hank has been trying to each me how to regenerate and heal wounds, so I can heal almost as fast as you," she said happily. "I finally got it—look--" She pulled up the hem of her pajama pant and showed him the place where Sabretooth had clawed her barely two months ago. One of the scars were gone; the other was considerably smaller than it had been the previous night, when Logan had caressed those legs as they wrapped tight around his middle…

With an effort he pulled his thoughts away from their activities the night before and kissed her. "Don' fergit, we're supposed ta go pick out yer ring today," he said.

Jubilee grinned at him. "I still don't know why you need me to go with you," she said. "Normally the girl gets surprised with the ring. It's not often that the girl gets to pick out the engagement ring."

Logan shrugged. "We're hardly a normal couple, Jubes," he pointed out.

***

So there they were, looking through the cases for something Jubilee liked, and waiting for the customer currently at the counters to leave so they could enlist the help of one of the salesgirls. Jubilee stopped at one case and looked inside. "That one," she suddenly breathed, looking inside. "Oh, Logan, that one!"

He looked into the case, followed the direction of her pointing finger. It was a lovely gold ring, with an oval sapphire in the middle and three tiny diamonds lining the band to either side. "Jubes," he said, "Aren't engagement rings supposed to be diamonds?"

"That used to be the case," said the salesgirl, coming over to them after saying goodbye to the customer she had just sold a necklace to. "The tradition is a diamond, but lately the trend has been toward colored stones. Engagement rings are now usually bought in the woman's birthstone." She looked at Jubilee kindly. "What is your birthstone, dear?"

"Blue topaz," Jubilee said. "But I don't like it. I like sapphires better."

The woman smiled. "They do match your eyes." She produced a ring of keys and unlocked the case. "This was the one you were looking at?" she handed Jubilee the gold ring with the sapphire and diamonds on it.

"Yes," Jubilee sighed, slipping the ring on her finger and looking at the ring under the light. "Oh, wow."

Logan, looking at the ring, had to agree. It looked fantastic on Jubes's finger, even though it was way too big.

"I love it," Jubilee said, glowing with happiness. "How much is it?"

The woman looked at the tag. "It's been reduced," she said. "There's a flaw in one of the diamonds that lower the price. Are you sure you want it?"

"Yes," Jubilee said definitely. To Logan, she said, **Any flaws in the stone I can fix once I get it.**

Logan looked through the rest of the case idly as Jubilee and the saleswoman arranged to have the ring sent out to be sized. "Will that be all right, Logan?" Jubilee said suddenly, breaking into his thoughts.

"Huh?" he said in astonishment.

"The lady said the ring will be back in a week., and you can come pick it up then. Will that be all right?"

"Sure," Logan said.

Once they were done at the jewelers, they went through the stores, buying Christmas presents. Logan chose carefully, unwilling to overspend and wipe out the account Jubilee had given him. Though Xavier put plenty of money aside to take care of anything the mansion's residents wanted or needed, Logan had always looked at the spending the girls did as frivolous, and had tried his best to provide his own money for whatever he wanted to do. 

Jubilee noticed. "Oh for goodness sake, Logan," she said in exasperation when he put back a silver sweater he had considered buying Ororo but decided against because it was silk, and therefore expensive, "There is enough money in that account for whatever you want to purchase! Have you taken a look at the bankbook for that account? I do keep it balanced for you."

"I don't wanna overspend, Jubes," he said. 

She giggled and pulled him into the elevator to go down. "Here." She handed him a black leather wallet. "For you."

He took it, feeling the fine grain of the leather, and then opened it. For a moment he thought she'd just filled it with sham credit cards, then gasped as he pulled one out and saw his name on it. So was the next one. "Jubes," he said when he could get his breath back, "What's this?"

She grinned and kissed him. "You have access to all of my accounts," she said cheerfully, hugging him. "As soon as you proposed, I went and had your name added onto my main bank account, all my cards, and two of my smaller accounts. Everything I have is yours now."

"Jubilee…" he breathed. At a loss for words, he took her in his arms and kissed her again.

"Do me a favor?" Jubilee said into his ear.

"What?" he said. 

"If you buy anything just remember to keep the receipts so I can balance the account books, okay?"

"Yeah, Jubes."

They loaded the back of his pickup with dozens of packages and bags, then got in and started to drive home. Halfway there Jubilee said suddenly, "Turn left here, Logan." Mystified, he followed her instructions until she told him to pull into a small shopping plaza. She turned to him and said, "I should be out in about an hour or so. Can you pick me up then?"

"Okay," he said. He watched as she vanished around the corner.

***

The tiny brass bell tinkled as Jubilee walked into the brightly-lit shop. A young, skinny guy behind the counter looked at her over the glasses he wore and said, "Yes, can I help you?"

"Yes," Jubilee said. "I was told you guys do custom tattoos here, by a friend of mine. Max Montgomery?"

"Ah! Yes, Moose! He's one of our favorite customers!" the guy 's face lightened up. "I'm Reggie Mane. This is my tattoo shop." His wide apart arms indicated the entire shop. "I can do any kind of tattoo you'd like." He smiled at her. "Are you the girl he calls his little Lady?"

"Yeah," Jubilee blushed. "My name is Jubilation Lee. He just tagged me with the name little Lady one night at Rex's and it stuck."

"Okay," Reggie said. "Then whatever you want, it's already paid for." At her disbelieving look, he said, "Moose was in here getting a new tattoo, and he mentioned that he had a lady friend who was interested in getting a tattoo. Told me she was a short, pretty Asian girl. When you came in, I thought it might be you, that's why I asked. Anyway, he overpaid me for the work I did for him, and when I brought it up, he said to apply the balance to whatever you want done."

Jubilee blinked. "Wow, that's awfully generous of him! I'll have to run by and thank him. Look, I'm getting engaged, and I was wondering if you could tattoo my fiancée's name somewhere on me, like maybe my hip or somewhere."

Reggie took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Are you sure you want it on your hip? The closer to the bone it is the more it's going to hurt."

Jubilee raised an eyebrow. "So where would you suggest?"

Reggie put his glasses back on. "Usually the girls who come in want tattoos on the shoulder, or the tummy, or the ankle," he said. "Are you going to care that it shows, or not?"

"I don't mind," Jubilee thought about it, "Although, you're right, I don't think I want something like totally huge or anything." She thought about it some more. "Maybe a little one, on my shoulder. It's only five letters, anyway; his name's Logan."

"Did you have a design in mind, or would you like to select something from my book?" Reggie pulled out a portfolio full of designs from under the counter and pushed it across the table top toward her. "Let me get my stuff together, and when you decide, call me."

Jubilee flipped through the book. A great many of them were large, showy things like she'd seen on Moose's arms, but one caught her eye. A pretty red rose, underlining a name. "Hey Reggie," she said, looking closely at it. "I like this one."

He came over, looked at the design. "Yes, that one's pretty," he said. "Nice and simple." He grinned. "I thought of that one as soon as I saw you," he said. "I had a feeling you'd pick that. Have you decided where you want it?"

Jubilee nodded. "On my hip," she said. "I know you said it's going to hurt more, but that's what I want."

Reggie shrugged. "You got it," he said.

Jubilee gritted her teeth and endured it. It wasn't as bad as she expected it was going to be; it certainly wasn't the worst pain she'd ever felt. When she finally got up and checked out Reggie's handiwork in the mirror, she decided that the pain was worth it. Five letters, spelling out Logan's name in Old English calligraphic script, was underlined by a long-stemmed bright red rose. 'I love it, Reggie," she giggled delightedly, "Thanks! Now how much of this do I owe you?"

"Nothing," Reggie said. "It was a delight working on a pretty girl like you."

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "Okay, try another one," she said. "How much did Moose pay you over, anyway?"

"Enough to cover that," Reggie said.

Jubilee gave him a narrow-eyed look. "Well that's what he told me to say!"

She leaned over the counter and pinned him with her sapphire eyes. It was an unusual color for someone with her racial background, and it tended to catch—and keep—people off guard. "What kind of deal did you make with him?" she asked him evenly.

Reggie grunted. "All right, you want the whole story?" When Jubilee nodded, he sighed. "Moose came in here and told me he had a friend who was thinking about getting a tattoo. Told me what you looked like, told me who you were, and then he gave me a hundred and told me to tell you it was paid for, whatever it was you wanted done. We agreed that if what you wanted cost more than that, he would pay me the balance later."

Jubilee looked at her hip in disbelief. "How much was this?"

You're a referral, you're a girl, and you're Moose's friend. Twenty bucks is what I'd have charged you for the letters and the rose. So Moose has a great deal of money coming back to him."

Jubilee grinned. "I'll make sure he gets it back."

"Oh no," Reggie made a face. "Don't you dare tell Moose I told you what we worked out; he'll have my hide! That and the fact that he still has my bike; he might take longer to get it finished if he finds out I told you! I do not want Moose Montgomery mad at me, thank you very much!" 

Jubilee laughed. "Okay," she said. "Thank you, Reggie. I promise I won't tell Moose what you told me."

Logan was waiting for her when she left the shop. He gave her a curious look when she climbed into the cab of the truck. "What was that for?"

She grinned. "I'll show you when we get home," she said. 

They took the packages straight to their room and hid them under the bed, then Jubilee led him into the bathroom and shut and locked the door. Logan got into the shower first, as was his custom as Jubilee brushed out her thick black hair, and then she joined him in the shower. He relaxed in her arms, letting the hot spray wash away the tension in his shoulders before he turned to her. "So what was this you was gettin' all mysterious over?"

She giggled and angled her hip up to him. "Look," she said.

Logan stared at the delicate rose on the pale, creamy flesh, and the bold black letters spelling out his name for the world to see. He felt heat rise to his cheeks and flush through his body, awakening the banked fire that always smoldered in his loins for her. Somehow, seeing his name printed indelibly on her skin for everyone to see was incredibly sexy. He went down on one knee to examine it better, then noticed the slight redness of the flesh around the tattoo. He couldn't help himself; he dipped his head and ran his tongue over that heated patch of skin. Jubilee moaned aloud; and that sound drove every thought but one straight out of his head.

He lay on the bed later, dazed from the intensity of their experience in the shower, as she explained about the tattoo parlor, Reggie, and how Moose had paid for it. "I really should go and thank him," she said lazily, tracing circles in his chest hair with her finger. 

"Yeah, I think you should," he said. "Ya want me ta come?"

Jubilee giggled. "Can you even still move after the way we—well—earlier?" she teased him gently. 

He snorted. "Tease," he ruffled her hair. "Well, I'm pretty comfortable here, so go right on ahead. Just remember, that movie ya wanted ta watch is on at ten, so ya better be back by then."

"Sure, Logan." Jubilee kissed him and bounced off the bed. "I'm taking my Celica, since my bike's over at his shop still." She pulled on a coat, and stopped to give him a last kiss before she headed out the door.

For just one moment, he was seized with the urge to call her back or run after her, anything to keep her here, but he suppressed the urge and sat back, staring at the TV. Still, that sense of impending doom hung over his head…

***

Jubilee pulled up in front of Moose's Motorcycle Mania. "Moose!" she called, her breath misting in the late December air. Christmas was only a week away, and it looked as though it would be a white one. They had already had two snowfalls, light ones, but a more substantial one was promised for the night. "Hey, Moose! It's me, Jubes!"

The door to the garage opened, and Moose stuck his head out. "Hey, little Lady!" he called out to her. "Come on in! It's too cold for ya to be out here!"

Jubilee slipped past him sideways through the door into the garage and stepped inside. "Whoo! It's cold out there," she said as she pulled off her coat in the welcome heat of the garage. 

"You should be home," he scolded her, draping her coat over a nearby chair. "The weatherman said there's a nasty snowstorm shaping up out there. What are you doing out?" He poured a cup of hot coffee and stuck it in her hand. She didn't drink coffee this time of night, but she kept it anyway to warm her hands. The heater wasn't working in her car; she'd been meaning to have it looked at but had kept forgetting.

She sat down in the battered chair Moose offered her and said, "I went to Reggie's today."

"I kinda thought you would," Reggie said with satisfaction. "What did you have done?"

For answer Jubilee stood and eased down the elastic waistband of her skirt, showing him the tattoo on her hip. "Reggie said it would hurt more if I got it on the hip, but it didn't really hurt that much," she said. "And it looked marvelous. I can see why you go to him." She gave him a sidelong glance as she said innocently. "And his prices must be quite reasonable too. He didn't charge me anything."

"Merry Christmas, Lady," Moose said. Jubilee put down her cup and rushed into his arms. "Thank you, Moose," she said into the thick wool of his sweater. "It was a wonderful gift."

He hugged her back. "You're welcome, Jubilee," he said.

And the back wall of the loft exploded inward.

Jubilee shrieked as Moose was grabbed by a pair of hands as big as his own and turned around to see Sabretooth snarling in the opening. "Sabretooth!" she screamed in anger. "Put him down!" Sabretooth had a mutant's strength; there was no way Moose, even as formidable a fighter as he was, would be able to take him on. She brought her hands up, but Sabretooth had Moose in front of him, shielding himself with Moose's body, and she couldn't use her powers with him in the way. Moose was growling, fighting for all he was worth, but Sabretooth's hold was too strong.

"Sabretooth!" Jubilee pleaded. "Sabretooth, let him go, come on, don't hurt him, please, he hasn't done anything to you! It's Logan and me you want, leave him alone!"

"Yeah," Sabretooth snarled. "Got that right, frail, it's you an' da runt I want. Mostly you. So come with me, an' no one gets hurt."

"I am not going anywhere with you!" Jubilee screamed at him. "You gotta be nuts!"

Sabretooth nodded. "I thought that'd be yer answer," he said. He grabbed Moose's arm and gave it a quick, savage twist.

Moose howled in agony as his forearm bones snapped like matchsticks. He screamed and screamed in pain as Jubilee stared horrified at the shattered, twisted ends of bone protruding from Moose's arm. "Stop it! Stop it!" she screamed hysterically as Sabretooth grabbed Moose's other arm and broke that too. "I'll do anything, Creed, please, stop it!" Tears streamed unheeded down her face.

Sabretooth pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at her. She caught it in midair before she realized what it was. It was one of those inhibiting collars, like the one he'd restrained her with a few months earlier. "Anything?" Sabretooth snarled. "Prove it. Put that 'round yer neck an' lock it on."

Jubilee stared at the thing in horror, then back at Sabretooth. He looked back at her. "Do it, or your friend suffers," he said. Jubilee looked at Moose, who was cradling both broken arms and crying in pain.

"Don't…do it…little Lady," he said, his face contorted in pain. "He's just…gonna hurt…ya…" And then he screamed as Sabretooth smashed a foot into the side of his knee and broke the kneecap. Jubilee screamed in anguish and fumbled with the collar as Moose howled in agony.

"I'm putting it on, I'm putting it on!" She put the hateful thing around her neck and snapped it shut, activating the electronic lock. Only someone who had the deactivation code could open it now. She held up her hands. "I did it, okay? I did it. Let him go, Sabretooth! Please let him go!"

Sabretooth tossed Moose aside like a rag doll and advanced on her. Before Jubilee could react, he was on top of her. 


	10. Torment

Chapter 10: Torment

Jubilee hardly had time to scream. Sabretooth landed on top of her, his fist smashing into her face. Her head whipped to the side, and then to the other as he backhanded her. Jubilee heard Moose screaming, partly from his own pain and partly from his anger at what was being done to her, but he was powerless to do anything with both arms and one leg broken. She cried out, in pain and shock, as Sabretooth continued to beat her until she was nearly senseless.

She barely realized when he got off her; she was nearly incapable of noticing anything. Her face was bruised and swollen where his fists had struck her. When he pulled back and started to kick her battered body, she could only lie there and cry helplessly, dazed from the concussion she had gotten from Sabretooth's fists.

Moose screamed in frustration and pain and fear. The agony in his arms and his leg was almost unbearable; but seeing Jubilee being beaten almost to death was intolerable. Whoever this Sabretooth was, he had to really hate her to do this to her. And it was because of him! If Jubilee hadn't been trying to help him she would never have crippled herself by putting that narrow metal band around her neck. He wept with anguish and frustration; if only he could do something!

Sabretooth stopped beating on the still body in front of him. She was just conscious enough to recognize what he was doing as he pushed up her skirt and ripped her panties off her legs. She moaned weakly but couldn't fight as he rolled her flat onto her back. His eyes roved her nudity from the waist down, and fastened on the fresh tattoo on her hip. "Logan," he snapped. "Ya gonna marry da runt?" He seized her hand as she tried to yank it out of his grasp, and he found the sapphire ring Logan had bought her. "Guess so," he leered. "Well, lessee 'f I can change ya mind. I'm more da man he's ever gonna be." And Jubilee screamed in agony as he cruelly slammed into her defenseless body.

Moose closed his eyes. He couldn't bear to see Jubilee raped in front of him while he was unable to do anything. Her cries and begging seemed to excite the feral mutant even further, and the violence increased. When the big mutant finally got off her, she was unconscious, and her clothes were bloodstained. The big mutant grabbed her limp hand, pulled off the ring, and threw it on the floor. Then he hefted the still body in his arms and stepped back through the hole in the wall. Just before he disappeared with his precious load, he turned to the man on the floor. "If ya see da runt, ya tell him I got da frail," he said.

Moose's head sank onto the cool concrete of the floor as tears fell from his eyes. The pain in his body was eclipsed by the pain in his heart and mind. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the tiny sapphire ring, its stones winking at him like the eyes of its owner had so many times.

***

Logan woke with a start. He wasn't sure what had woken him, but something had. For a moment he lay awake, wondering what it was. A full moon cast light in bright parallelograms across the empty expanse of the bed beside him, and he came awake with a start and glanced at the bedside clock. Three in the morning! And Jubes wasn't home yet!

He sprang out of bed, panic rising even as his intellect tried to quell it. Maybe she'd gone barhopping with Moose and drank too much, and was sleeping it off at his place. But as he yanked his clothes on with frantic haste, the sense of impending doom that had hung over him for the last few hours refused to rest. Something was wrong. He knew it was.

To his great surprise, as he raced into the kitchen to grab the keys to the pickup that hung on a rack of keys by the back door, he almost ran into Remy, coming in the door. "Hey, _homme_, where you goin' in such a hurry?" 

Logan didn't waste words. "Get in the truck, Gumbo," he said grimly. "Jubes ain't home yet, an' I got a bad feelin' somethin' happened. I'm goin' ta find her." Remy turned wordlessly and followed him out to the truck.

It took only a half an hour to reach Moose's garage. When they pulled up, it all looked peaceful, and Logan almost chided himself for his misgivings. Jubilee's silver Celica was parked neatly outside, and there was little external sign anything was wrong.

All of that changed when he stepped into the garage. The smell of blood hit his senses like a tidal wave, and the bright lights within outlined sharply every blood spatter, every stain, every drop spilled. Remy ran to the big man lying against the wall of the garage, unconscious, and checked him as Logan took a deep sniff. Sabretooth's stink was overwhelming in the space, no matter how much snow had drifted in through the gaping hole in the back wall. There was the smell of Jubilee's perfume, a subtle scent of jasmine and roses, so faint now because of the smell of her fear, her pain, and her blood. Logan smelled the musky scent of Jubilee's body intertwined with the salty-sour smell of Sabretooth's bodily fluids, and growled. He dropped to his knees beside Moose. "Moose!" he shook the man. "Moose!" But there was no response, and after he took a closer look at the big man, he realized he wasn't likely to get an answer from him for a long time.

Remy was calling the police and paramedics over the shop's phone. Logan put pressure on the main arteries and veins leading outward to the broken arms, and Remy grimly made a tourniquet with his belt to cut off the bleeding around the smashed kneecap.

They could only watch helplessly as the paramedics loaded the unconscious man into the ambulance and rushed him to the hospital.

Jean, Scott, and Ororo met Remy and Logan at the hospital after Remy called the mansion to let everyone know where they were and what had happened. Jean's face was streaked with tears as she ran down the hallway toward the two men. "How is he? Where's Jubilee?" she gasped breathlessly as she reached them.

"He's unconscious and in critical condition," said Remy. "And we couldn' fin' Jubilee anywhere."

"Sabretooth got her," Logan growled furiously, pacing in circles. "I smelled his stink all over the garage. He raped her, an' he beat her, and he's got her now, and I don't know if Moose is gonna be able ta tell us where they gone." He stopped in front of Jean. "Jean, can ya tap inta my mind an' try ta trace Jubes by followin' the link she placed in there? I tried, but I can't get nothin' but blankness where I should be able ta feel her." He spoke calmly, but it was a calmness borne of desperation and terrible fear for the woman he loved.

Jean sat him down on a nearby chair, reached out, and touched his mind. She found the silver linkage thread deep inside his mind, took it, and began to follow it until it ended suddenly in blankness. She shook her head and terminated the link. "She's either out of my reach, or she's unconscious," she said grimly, refusing to voice what they were all thinking: _Maybe she's dead. _"Maybe if we could get home, Charles would be able to do better with Cerebro."

"I will stay here with Remy and wait for news of Jubilee's friend," Ororo volunteered, and Scott nodded. 

"Okay. Logan, Jean, and I will head back to the mansion and get Charles to look into Logan's mind. Ororo, as soon you hear from the doctors please call us. If we can't track her, when the doctors say he can have visitors perhaps Jean could probe the man's mind and find out what happened."

***

Jubilee moaned in anguish, tears of pain filling her eyes. She could barely move; she was sore all over, and most of her pain seemed concentrated in the raw ache between her legs. Sabretooth, apparently sensing that she wouldn't be able to fight him, had done little to bind her. He'd simply manacled her wrists behind her and run a chain to a concrete support pillar behind her. Memories of Bastion ran through her mind, but she pushed them aside and tried to concentrate on the here-and-now.

'Here' was apparently a large, abandoned warehouse. The only light in the building came from a single bright bulb dangling from the ceiling above her. She squinted up at the light, trying to see beyond it. Surely there had to be a window somewhere around her so she could see if it was day outside yet.

How long had she been unconscious? She didn't know, and that frightened her. Moose had been hurt badly; Jubilee fervently hoped someone heard his screams and checked on him. If he lost too much blood he would die. She cursed herself for being too slow to obey Sabretooth's order; if she'd been just a bit faster maybe he wouldn't have been hurt as badly.

"Hey, frail," came Sabretooth's hateful voice, and a rough hand grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. "Whatcha think, huh?"

"The accomodations suck, and you stink," she snapped at him. "Let me go, before Logan comes to find me and takes a chunk out of your ass for hurting me."

Sabretooth let go of her hair and reached behind him. His wandering hands found a chair and snagged it, and he pulled it in front of her and sat down. He hadn't bothered to clean himself off after violating her earlier, and she smelled her own blood and body fluids on him as he pushed his groin toward her. "Open yer mouth, girl," he said.

Jubilee grimaced and turned her head away. There was no way she was going to do that! She enjoyed it with Logan…but there was no way she was going to do that for Creed. 

"I said open yer mouth, girl!" Sabretooth slapped her hard enough to drive her head back onto the concrete pillar she was chained to, and she saw stars. She kept her mouth stubbornly closed.

He growled and slapped her head again, ramming her head against the pole again and again and again until she was crying from the pain in her head. She fell over, dizzy, when he finally released her, and lay there dazed. Sabretooth got down on his knees and hauled her head up. She retained just enough awareness to clench her teeth as he brought her face closer to his body.

He grabbed her hair and yanked it back, so far back that her mouth opened involuntarily. She gagged and retched as he rammed into her open mouth.

Sabretooth groaned as he felt the involuntary contractions of her throat around him. It didn't take him long this time; it was the thought that he had one of the runt's women suffering at his feet that inflamed his senses. He knew she hated him; he knew the runt was probably going crazy right now wondering where she was. He had brought Jubilee here to the warehouse he'd been hiding out in; then gone back to the motorcycle shop and waited on the roof of a building some distance upwind. He'd nearly frozen himself, but it had been worth it, to see the runt sniffing frantically at the air and the freshly-fallen snow looking for him and the frail. But Sabretooth had covered his tracks well, and his scent was masked by the hundreds of other scents in the city. It wasn't going to be as easy to track him in the city as it was out in the wilderness.

He finally released her and sat back on the chair, watching as she gagged and retched and coughed. A thin trickle of saliva and body fluids dripped from the corner of her mouth as she gasped and vomited. Her eyes were burning with hatred when he finally stood, towering over her. "Learnt ya lesson?" he smirked.

Jubilee didn't think about the consequences. She spat a mouthful of bile at him.

He unlocked the chain from around the post and dragged her to her feet, then threw the chain over a low overhead beam. He kept tugging on the chain until her upper body was bent to the floor and she whimpered from the strain on her shoulders. He surveyed her bent position and grinned as he slashed away her clothes. Jubilee cringed visibly when her clothes finally fell away and Sabretooth leered at her nudity. She started screaming as he assaulted her again.

***

Moose opened his eyes slowly. He felt like he was floating in a dense, thick fog; he couldn't feel anything. _Probably a good thing, or I'd be screaming by now,_ he thought. _Wait. Where's the little Lady?I got to..gotta…_"..Help…" It came out as a croak.

A gentle hand fell on his forehead. "I believe he's waking up," said a woman's voice. He could drown in that voice; it was the voice of an angel. He opened his eyes, and groaned. 

A tall African goddess sat beside his bed, silver hair framing a delicate, high-cheekboned face. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen; something about her reminded him of his beloved Carly. "Who…who are…"

"My name is Ororo," said the goddess. "I am a friend of Jubilee's. Logan and Remy found you in your garage with both arms broken and your kneecap smashed. How do you feel?"

"Jubilee…Jubilee…where is she…ya gotta find her…that crazy mutant…" He tried to sit up, ignoring the agonizing pains in her arms and leg. Ororo placed a hand in the middle of his chest and pressed him back onto the bed until he lay back, gasping from pain and exertion. "Where's Logan?"

"He is on his way here," Ororo took a cup of water from someone he couldn't see and ran an arm behind his back. With her help, he managed to get a few sips down to cool his burning, raw throat. Exhausted from the effort, he lay back, and she gently slipped a pillow under his head. 

"Jubilee…" he couldn't get the image out of his mind; his little Lady lying on the floor, bruised and screaming as she was brutally assaulted. "Jubilee…" he stared at the ceiling, not knowing, or caring, that tears were streaming from his eyes.

Ororo pushed a strand of tangled hair out of his eyes and wiped a tear away before it could hit the pillow. She was worried about Jubilee too…but this man lying in the bed in front of her was so plainly torn up about her loss as well…Ororo patted his arm. "Rest," she said gently. "Save your strength. No," she held up a warning finger as he started to say something, "Wait until Logan gets here. Then you will only need to tell everything once." She was helping him take another drink when the door flew open and Logan pounded into the room.

"Logan!…" And Moose started to struggle up to a sitting position. Ororo stopped trying to keep him down and slid another pillow behind him, helping him sit up. Jean came running in a half second after Logan and skidded to a stop.

"Moose!" Logan grabbed his shoulders. "What happened?"

"The little Lady…she come by ta show me her tattoo, an' this big mutant busted in the back wall a' my garage. Took me completely by surprise, Logan, I swear… He had me before I could get away; I tried to break his grip, I swear I did, but he was just too goddamn freakin' strong. I couldn't get him offa me. Jubes kept screaming at him to let me go, that she'd do anything if he'd let me go. He broke my arms, I think ta show 'er he was serious. Then he threw this little metal collar at her and told her to put it on and lock it. She hesitated; she didn't want to, I guess. That was when he broke my knee. Jubilee put the damn thing on. I begged her not to; but she did anyway to save me…" tears filled his eyes again, and his voice got hoarse. "That mutant…she called him Sabretooth…he threw me aside like a doll and grabbed her. Logan…he ripped her clothes off and beat her up and he …he _raped_ her…right there in front of me, and she was screaming and crying, she couldn't stop him and I couldn't stop him and he just kept _hurting_ her until she passed out…oh god…" And he dissolved into tears, crying as hard as anyone Ororo had ever seen.

Logan fell to his knees beside Moose's bed, numb with shock and anguish. It was worse than he could have imagined…Jubilee…he collected himself with an effort and asked him, "Moose…Moose, he didn' happen ta say where he was headed, did he?"

"No…no he didn't," Moose said. "He just told me ta tell ya he had her."

***

Sabretooth stood on the roof of the warehouse, watching as the motorcycle roared by the warehouse for the fourth time that day. Dark was closing in; Logan would probably pass by maybe one more time before heading back to the mansion.

He had been doing this for five days now, and Sabretooth had been deriving almost the same amount of enjoyment from Logan's frantic attempts to find the girl as he had assaulting and hurting her. She was lying now in a wooden crate downstairs, wrapped in a flannel blanket to muffle the sound of her cries and hide the smell of her blood from the man who hunted the streets for her. Logan never came near the dock district at night; so during the day Sabretooth laid low and kept Jubilee hidden. Night was his playtime.

So, time to go play. He descended the stairs from the roof to the floor of the warehouse, and walked to the crate lying on the floor. He imagined what she would be feeling right now; trapped in a close, tight cramped prison, in pain and wondering when he would yank the lid off her crate and begin another night of torment. The thought caused a feral grin to cross his face as he pulled the lid off the crate and reached down to grab the arm of the woman inside. "Rise an' shine, it's another painful day!" She had no idea whether it was actually day or night; he'd blocked the windows and covered them with black plastic trash bags while he'd planned his attack on her.

Jubilee rolled out of the crate stiffly, moaning in anguish at the cramps causing spasms in her legs and arms. She squinted up at Sabretooth; there seemed to be too many of him. She was probably seeing double because of her worsening hunger and her overwhelming thirst.

She hadn't eaten, and he gave her only enough water to keep her throat in working order so he could hear her scream in agony when he hurt her. Her entire body was a mass of bruises and welts, scrapes and sores. The pain in her loins was so intense she could sob from the merest touch. She was a wreck, and he was enjoying every minute of it.

"Please," she whimpered, as she saw him pulling the chain down from the overhead beam again, "Please, Creed, please don't, not again, oh god, I hurt so much, please!" She cried in terror as he caught her hands in front of her in a set of handcuffs and hooked the chain to them. Her feet left the floor with the first pull, and he kept pulling until her tear-streaked face was even with his. 

"Logan's gone by here a few minutes ago," he taunted her. "Don't ya think it'd just tear him up, ta know ya were so close ta him?" Jubilee hung from the chain, her shoulders a knotted mass of anguish from having her entire body weight hanging from them. Although, she thought dazedly, by now there probably was less weight than when she had first woken up here.

Sabretooth picked up a long, coiled length of heavy hemp rope, swished it around her. Jubilee's eyes filled with tears. He'd whipped her with that rope a few nights back. It had skinned her in places, leaving open, raw sores. Worse was when he'd shoved a knot of the stuff between her legs and tied her thighs around it, then beat her with a length of chain. By the time he'd finished, the rope was soaked with her blood, and the skin between her thighs was raw. She hadn't been able to close her legs since.

Creed concentrated on her front this time. The last time, he'd worked over her back. Now that she knew how much it hurt, he was going to work over the front of her body. He licked his lips at the thought of that white chest with the skin stripped off it.

He started slowly, letting her pain build up as he built up speed. By the time it became necessary to gag her, her screams were almost continuous, a helpless anthem of pain, a testament to his cruelty. He shoved a knot of rope between her teeth and continued to torture her.


	11. Dead Dreams

Chapter 11: Dead Dreams

                Logan parked his bike in the garage and sat there for a moment in the darkness. He felt numb, empty. 

                Another day of searching, and he hadn't been able to figure out where Sabretooth had hidden Jubilee. He couldn't help but feel a growing sense of dread that time was running out for her.

                He got off the bike and took the helmet off. He stared at for a long time, tears blurring his vision so that he hardly saw the three silver slashes on its side. Jubilee had made this for him; he was determined that it wouldn't be the last gift he'd get from her. Somehow or another, he'd find her. And when he did, Creed was going to pay. His lips thinned out into a grim line. After he went in, got warmed up, and had a cup of coffee, he would hit the road again, looking for her.

                He walked in the kitchen door, wearily, and sat down at the kitchen table. Jean was standing at the sink, pouring herself a cup of coffee, and when she heard him come in she turned. "Logan…" she trailed off as she looked at him.

                He looked terrible. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked—and smelled—like he hadn't had a bath in days. "Logan," she said gently, putting a cup of black coffee in front of him, "You're not doing yourself any good by wearing yourself out looking for her."

                He looked up at her with bleary eyes. "I gotta keep lookin', Jean," he said. "Wherever Creed's holed up, he's gotta know I ain't stoppin' till I fin' her. 'F he knows I ain't gonna stop, maybe he'll give up an' let her go."

                "I'm not saying you should stop, Logan," Jean said, putting her coffee down. "I'm just saying you need to rest. Get some sleep, at least. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but I really don't think you're going to find her until Sabretooth's good and ready to tell us where she is."

                Xavier came into the kitchen just then, and looked at Jean. **Has he gotten any sleep over the last few days?** He asked her.

                **Doesn't look like it,** Jean answered him grimly.

                **Would you…?** he didn't have to finish. Jean nodded and closed her eyes as Logan stared despondently into his coffee. Remy came in from the back door just in time to sweep the coffee out from under his head as Logan's face hit the table, fast asleep.

                "Nicely done," he said. "Was wonderin' myself when de homme goin' to git some sleep."

                Jean telekinetically lifted Logan's body from the chair he was sitting on, and carried him into the informal sitting room just off the kitchen. Lowering him gently onto the couch there, she pulled a blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over him. As quietly as possible, she tiptoed from the room, switching off the light behind her.

                She rejoined Xavier and Remy in the kitchen as Rogue and Scott came in the back door. She didn't need to ask; the look on their faces was the same as it had been for the last week. They hadn't found any trace of her.

                "I just don't think we're going to find her until Sabretooth's ready to let us know where she is," Scott slid into the chair Logan had just vacated with a sigh. "Wherever she is, he has her hidden well."

*                                                                                              *                                                                              *

                Sabretooth smashed the length of chain into the battered, bleeding body hanging in front of him. Jubilee twisted in agony, tears streaming down her face. Another high-pitched wail erupted from her throat before she sagged limply in the handcuffs again. He repeated the motion, and she whimpered again.

He studied the hanging girl thoughtfully. When he'd torn the lid off her crate this evening, she'd just fallen out without a sound. She hadn't fought to escape him, she hadn't screamed at him. In fact, she hadn't really screamed at all. There hadn't been a single intelligible word from her over the last two days, just a thin, high-pitched wail coming from the back of her throat when he hurt her. She hadn't struggled at all, hadn't cursed him, hadn't begged him. Hadn't spoken at all.

                He'd finally broken her.

                A sneer curled one lip. Now was the time to give her back to the runt. She was no use to Logan now; if he still wanted to get between her legs she'd be nothing but a blank-eyed vegetable. He lowered the frail's arms, released her hands from the handcuffs. 

He shoved a blanket at her. She stared at it blankly, trying to figure out what it was and what she was supposed to do with it. Sabretooth ripped it out of her hands and threw it over her shoulders. She just stood there, staring straight ahead of her at nothing, and didn't say a word. He grabbed one wrist and dragged her outside, to where a battered, beat-up old Jeep sat under a heavy tarp. He pulled the tarp off, watched the snow hit the ground, then grabbed her arm and pulled her by main force into the side seat. He went around, got into the driver's side, and turned the key. He'd found this old jeep in a junkyard; it wasn't the most reliable, but he could use it to get to Xavier's place. He wouldn't need it after that.

Jubilee stared ahead of her, eyes focused on nothing. She wasn't Jubilee anymore; she was just a bundle of nerves screaming in pain. As the cold seeped into her bare feet and icy hands, numbing them and taking away the pain, she began to slowly notice that she wasn't in the warehouse anymore. Her eyes blinked.

Sabretooth was driving, thinking about how Logan would react, and not really paying much attention to how fast he was going when the sound of sirens started up behind him. He looked in the cracked rear-view mirror, and cursed. There was a police car behind him, flashing its lights. He stepped on the pedal, swearing as the engine responded sluggishly and the near-bald tires skidded on the icy pavement. The police car gained a few more feet. He'd have to lose the cop before heading up the road to Xavier's mansion. 

He sped through two intersections, and just as he was about to go through the third a pickup truck appeared out of the swirling gray snow ahead, and he had to twist the wheel hard to avoid it. He barely got a glimpse of the driver of the truck, but the passenger's unusual hairstyle was a dead giveaway. It was Logan and his Cajun friend.

Logan stared for one shocked moment as he recognized the driver of the spluttering Jeep, and growled, "Remy! It's Creed! And he's got Jubes with him!" As Remy revved his engine and followed the police car and the Jeep, Logan stared hard through the windshield, trying to figure out why Jubilee sat so still under the threadbare blanket she wore.

*                                                                              *                                                                                              *

                Sabretooth cursed again when he saw the bridge ahead of him. It said closed due to bad weather. Snow was starting to fall; even through his thick fur he could feel the cold. As soon as his tires hit the edge of the bridge, the Jeep went skidding. He twisted the wheel hard, but the Jeep didn't stop until he well over the bridge. Then one of the tires blew out, dumping him and Jubilee out into the snow.

                Behind him, the police car stopped, and so did Remy's truck. They both got out, and Logan growled, "Stay here, Cajun. Creed's mine." He stalked toward Sabretooth as the big mutant grabbed Jubilee's blanket-covered form, and the blank blue eyes blinked again confusedly as she was swung around to face Logan. She knew him…

                Sabretooth held a claw over Jubilee's unprotected throat. "Stay away from me, runt," he snarled. "Or I swear I'll kill her!"

                Logan didn't even hear Creed's shout. His eyes were fixed on Jubilee, and a cold, cold rage filled him as his eyes traveled Jubilee's shivering body from the bare, bruised feet, the thin legs covered with welts and sores, to the raw, skinned flesh between her thighs. "Jubilee!" he screamed when he saw the blank, empty look in her eyes. There was no recognition in them when she looked at him. "Jubilee, come on, darlin', It's me, it's Logan! Come on, ya can get away from Creed! Come on! Jubes, please! I love ya!" 

                Jubilee blinked again as the words penetrated the thick fog of pain in her head. She was so tempted to slip back down, deep into herself, away from the pain of her body, but the voice wouldn't let her. It filtered into her head, insistent, until she finally identified it. "Logan?" she whispered, raising her head. Recognition flickered in her eyes. "Logan? Oh, god, I hurt, please help me…" and she started to struggle, twisting in Creed's grip.

                She took him completely by surprise. As she twisted in his grip, fighting him, his hand fell away from her throat, and an extra spurt of strength got her away from Creed. Logan caught her as she fell to the ground, sobbing, and clutched her in his arms. She was alive!

                "Jubes, Jubes, I love ya, yer okay, I'll never let ya go again," but Creed was racing forward, furious, and Remy yanked Jubilee back as Logan turned to face Sabretooth.

                Remy brought a thicker, warmer blanket and a thermos of hot coffee from the truck and knelt beside Jubilee. She wrapped her cold, shaking hands around its warmth and drank as Remy tucked the blanket around her, shaking in anger himself as he looked at Jubilee's battered body. They all knew Sabretooth was brutal, but Remy'd never dreamed he was capable of this. Although Xavier's voice ran through his head, saying "X-Men don't kill," a tiny voice away in the back of his head irrationally hoped Logan would finish him off this time. Jubilee ignored him, turning instead to watch Sabretooth and Logan clash in the middle of the icy bridge.

                Sabretooth crouched low, taking a 'ready' stance as Logan advanced. "So, ya gotcher woman back," Creed taunted. "Yer gonna find she ain't worth the effort no more, runt. I done wrecked her for ya. Ya know, I figure out whatcha liked 'bout her. She got the sweetest body o' anyone ya ever had. And she screams all nice an' loud, too."

                Logan didn't waste words. He launched himself at Creed.

                Sabretooth stumbled back in surprise; he wasn't used to being put on the defensive. Logan usually waited for Creed to make the first move. He dodged to the side, avoiding the first swipe with those deadly claws, then ducked to the other side as Logan, snarling, swiped at the big mutant with his other hand. The claws sliced off some of Creed's fur, but missed the skin.

                "Ya never could take me on," Creed taunted as he and Logan circled each other again. "Never will, neither."

                Logan ignored the words, concentrating instead on the body language of the opponent in front of him. He couldn't listen; if he did, his anger would get the better of him and he'd do something stupid. He needed to end this, now. Only one of them was going to walk away from this fight, and Logan was determined that it was going to be him. Jubilee'd been through enough pain; there was no way he'd put her through losing him, too. Not tonight.

                He waited for an opportunity, and sprang. There! His claws raked Sabretooh's thigh as he slid past, and Sabretooth howled in pain. In almost the same instant, his own claws sliced into Logan's shoulder, making Logan howl in pain as five deep gashes cut into skin and muscle. He ignored the pain and the sting as it started to heal, growled in anger, and resumed his stalking. When he rushed again, he sprang into the air at the last minute and scored Creed's face with his claws.

                Sabretooth roared with pain. "That's done it, ya made me mad!" he swore wildly at Logan. "No more pussyfooting around!"

                Logan roared, sprang. Creed met him head-on. For a moment they grappled, Logan exerting all his strength to bring his claws to bear on Sabretooth's body. Sabretooth grabbed his wrists, tried to turn those deadly claws away from him. They strained for a while, each fighting the other's strength, until Sabretooth's arm wavered just a fraction.

                It was all Logan needed. His claws drove deep into Sabretooth's midsection, burying themselves to the knuckle in flesh. The hot smell of Creed's blood enraged him, and he sank his other hand's claws into the big mutant's ribs. Creed howled and fell back limply in the snow.

                Logan turned away from Creed's body and stumbled toward Jubilee. She dropped the thermos and blanket, and rushed into his arms. "Logan, oh, Logan, I was scared," she whispered. "Creed took me, and he did some awful things, and oh, Logan, I hurt…." She moaned as he crushed her body to him in a giant hug, disregarding her smell. "Logan," she whispered, "Moose, he was with me when Sabretooth broke into the garage, is he…?"

                "He's fine, darlin'," Logan said, wrapping her tighter in his arms. "We got him to a hospital. Let's get you home now so we can get you looked at, huh?" She nodded, tears still staining her cheeks, and nodded. They started to head for the end of the bridge, and Scott's car.

                "Look out!" Remy yelled suddenly, but it was too late. Sabretooth slammed into them, the force of the impact knocking Logan aside and pinning Jubilee under his considerable weight. His fist smashed into her stomach, and she screamed in agony. Logan heard bone crack in her body as Creed punched her again, and she screamed again, choking on blood.

                Logan ran into Sabretooth, pushing him off Jubilee and sending both of them skidding across the bridge as She scrambled for the safety of Remy's arms. Logan ended up underneath Creed, and Creed started to punch his stomach. Logan's bones didn't break; they were, after all, covered with adamantium, but his internal organs had no such protection. Creed paused, raised his claws, bared them over Logan's midriff, and then slashed down through muscle and skin to bury his claws in Logan's stomach.

                Logan howled in agony as his hands gripped Sabretooth's wrist, stopping him from delving any deeper into his body. He strained, trying to push the bigger mutant off him.

                Jubilee stood, watching, screaming in anguish and horror as Logan's stomach was slashed open. "Logan!"

                Remy reached for Jubilee. "P'tite! No!" But the girl was in motion, racing toward the two men, and she collided with Sabretooth amidships. Despite all the weight she had lost over the last week and her current starved state, she was still heavy enough and had still gathered enough speed to push him off Logan. Sabretooth grabbed her arms as his legs tried to find purchase on the icy pavement of the bridge, but it was too slick, and her attack had been too unexpected.

                They fell over the side.

                "NO!" Logan cried out, and pushed himself weakly to his feet as Remy and the cop raced over to him. All three of them peered over the side.

                Jubilee had fallen about ten feet over the edge, but had grabbed an iron girder under the bridge, one of the bridge supports, and was hanging on for dear life, crying with the pain in her shoulders. Sabretooth had grabbed on to her legs, and they hung there, almost a hundred feet above the river below.

                Remy groaned. "Where's Jean or 'Ro when we need them?" he said, watching despairingly as Jubilee clung to the beam far below them. "What do we do?"

                "Grab my legs," Logan said, and when Remy and the cop both had hold of him, he bent over the rail as far as he could, and extended a hand to the girl clinging to the steel beam. "Jubilee!" he called to her, pitching his voice to carry above the rising wind. "Grab my hand! Remy's got my legs, we can pull both of you up! Grab my hand!"

                Jubilee sobbed as she adjusted her grip on the girder. "I can't, Logan, Creed's too heavy!" she cried. "If I let one of my hands go, we'll fall!"

                Creed saw that hand extended to the frail, and a wolfish smile crossed his face. He sank his claws into the frail's legs and began to claw his way up her body. He could end this; He was going to grab Logan's hand, pull him down, then he'd let him fall into the frozen river below. Logan wouldn't survive that; his body smashing into the river ice from this height would kill him. He sank his talons into Jubilee's shoulders, causing the girl to scream again, and reached for Logan's hand.

                Logan saw Sabretooth reach for his hand, and almost pulled it back, but thought better of it. Creed obviously wanted to live. If Creed grabbed his hand, and Jubilee grabbed his legs, he could pull both of them up, and they both would be safe. "Jubilee!" he screamed, his words getting lost in the wind, ""Grab Creed's legs and we'll pull both of you up!

                Jubilee saw that hand extended, and saw Creed reach for it. Her arms were screaming at her with the weight placed on them, but she barely noticed as she saw the triumphant grin on Sabretooth's face. She could see, in one moment, what he was going to do. He was going to grab Logan's hand and yank him out of Remy's and the officer's grasp, then open his hand and let Logan fall onto the ice far below them. Logan would die; healing factor or not, Jubilee didn't think he'd survive the fall from this far up. She could save him…but she would have to let go. Sabretooth would fall with her; he was only saved from falling right now by her grip on the steel supports of the bridge.

                She wept with anguish as she willed her numb fingers to let go. They were clenched so tightly around the steel beam that the metal edges were cutting into her fingers. She didn't want to die; but she couldn't see Logan die, either. It would tear her heart out. There was no one in her heart but him; and she knew there never would be. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears of pain, of anguish, and whispered, "I love you."

                And then she let go.

                **_"JUBILEE!!!! NO! NONONONONONO! OH GOD PLEASE NO!!!" _**Logan screamed as he watched helplessly as the woman he loved fell far, far below him. 

                Jubilee closed her eyes, Logan's scream echoing in her ears as she fell. She hoped he'd heard her; she hoped he would understand. There had been many women in his life; she wasn't the first, and she knew that with his indeterminately long lifespan, there would be more. She remembered something she'd seen on TV; someone talking about dying. They'd said there was a bright light in front of them. She felt her body hit the ice, felt agony like she'd never felt before slice into her brain from the back of her head. She didn't even have time to scream as she slipped away into soft, deep darkness. Her last thought, as icy water closed over her head, was wonder. Why wasn't there any light? 

                Sabretooth's body struck the ice first. The impact of his body, all that mass, cracked the ice around him in a spider pattern. When Jubilee's body struck the ice seconds later, the ice cracked into huge chunks and dumped both bodies into the icy river. Logan stared in helpless anguish as the water closed over Jubilee's head. She didn't come back up.

                **_"NO!! NO! OH, GOD, NOOOO…"_** And Logan barely realized that Remy had pulled him up over the side as he collapsed on the icy pavement of the bridge, screaming Jubilee's name. Remy wept unashamedly, staring at the dark, swirling, freezing water that had swallowed up their enemy and their friend, and pressed his hand to his mouth in anguish and sympathy as Logan howled her name again and again in rage and loss and grief.

NOTE TO READERS!!! THIS IS NOT THE END!! READ THE LAST CHAPTER!!


	12. No Greater Love

Chapter 12: No Greater Love

"Goddammit!" Moose swore as his pant leg refused to go on over the bulky bandage on his knee. The doctors had told him he could go home today; though both arms were in casts, he could still use them to do basic things around the house.

He couldn't wait to go home. He had enough of this hospital. Ororo had been an infrequent visitor while he was here, cheering up the long days with stories about his little Lady growing up, but she had been busy searching for her too, and hadn't been around as much as he would have liked. He awkwardly tried to climb into his pants again, just as the door opened.

He turned. Ororo stood there, tears streaking her chocolate skin, her silcver hair touseled, her clothes wrinkled. She was a mess. "Moose…" she said hesitantly. "Moose…Jubilee…"She couldn't go on. Instead she walked in, sat down on the bed, and burst into tears. 

"No…." Moose breathed in anguish as he realized what she was trying to say. "No…." His eyes filled with tears, but he refused to let them fall as he sat beside her on the bed and took Ororo in his arms. Her shoulders shook with her sobs, and he widened his eyes, willing himself not to cry. "'Ro…what happened…?"

Between sobs, Ororo choked out the story. "Jean and Scott went out looking for her…They were almost run over by Sabretooth driving a jeep…Jubilee was in it with him. His tire blew out and he stopped on the bridge. Logan faced him down while Jean got Jubilee away from him, and Logan and Creed fought. Logan stabbed him, and thought it was over, when Creed got back up and beat Jubilee. Logan went to rescue her. When Sabretooth got the better of Logan, Jubilee ran into him and knocked him off Logan, and she and Creed went over the side of the bridge...Jubilee caught the bridge supports, and Creed caught her legs. She was hanging on, and Logan was going to pull them both up, but Jubilee thought Creed was going to pull Logan off and take him down into the river with him. So she let go. She and Creed fell into the river. The police have been searching for the last six hours, but they haven't found her body. It's not likely that they will." And she burst into a fresh torrent of tears. 

"Oh, dear god, please no," Moose gasped in anguish. "Not her…oh, no…" He bowed his head, mourning the sassy little Lady he'd come to love in the short time he'd known her, and for a while there was no sound in the room but 'Ro's sobs.

At length, she ran out of tears, and he awkwardly handed her a tissue. "Thank you for coming to tell me," he said. "I was expecting Logan…but I'd rather have you tell me. How is he taking it?"

"Hard," Ororo dabbed at her eyes with another tissue. "He has not come out of the room he shared with her since he came home. He won't eat, won't sleep, won't talk to anyone." She sniffed. "I was hoping maybe you would come with me to see him. Maybe he will talk to you."

"I'll come," Moose said immediately, standing up stiffly and trying once again to get his pants on. With Ororo's help, he finally got them on. "Can I stop by my garage first?"

She followed him to the shop, and watched as he bent awkwardly and looked for the tiny object he sought. When he had no luck, she got down and looked, and it was she who eventually found what he sought.

***

Logan lay on the bed, clutching Jubilee's pillow in his arms. The scent of her hair was still in it; and he hugged the pillow to him as his eyes filled with tears. "Why," he whispered to the silent room. "Jubilee, why? I could have pulled both of you up…Jean had my legs…he wouldn't have pulled me over…" but she was gone, forever, and there was nothing he could do but lie here and grieve for his little firecracker…

The door opened, and he smelled a scent he never expected to smell in the mansion. He turned in surprise, as Ororo showed Moose into the room, and closed the door. The big man looked around the room, then finally perched on the edge of Jubilee's desk chair and watched Logan silently. It was Logan who finally broke the silence. "Whatcha doin' here, Moose?"

"I heard the news," Moose said quietly. "Ororo told me what happened. I…came to say I'm sorry. I loved her too, Logan. Maybe not quite like you loved her, but I still loved her." He held out the tiny gold circle he'd rescued from his shop floor and held it out to Logan. "That mutant…Sabretooth…he took this off her finger before he took her. I thought you might want it back."

Logan took the ring from Moose, staring at the tiny sapphires. "She loved it," he said wistfully. "She wore it all the time. Said it reminded her of you."

Logan looked at the ring for long moments, then suddenly held it out to Moose. "I can't. It's got too many mem'ries fer me. Ya can go 'head an' keep it. I got her engagement ring." He gestured to the small velvet jewelry box Rogue had picked up at the mall. The woman had been so pleased that it had come in in time for Christmas; Logan hadn't had the heart to return it and tell her that the girl who was supposed to have worn it was dead. 

Moose looked at it, looked at Logan. "Go ahead," Logan said, sitting up. 

Moose opened the tiny box and looked at the diamond and sapphire ring inside. "She always did have a thing for sapphires," he said quietly, closing the box. For a moment, both men sat quietly, each with his own memories of the woman they'd both loved.

Ororo opened the door quietly, and poked her head in. "Charles has scheduled a memorial service for tomorrow," she said quietly. "Max, you are welcome to attend."

***

The service was short, simple, as was the object that Charles had chosen for her. A plain, polished stone tablet, inscribed with her name, a quote, her birthdate, and the date of her death…was it only a few short days ago? It felt like an eternity to the two men who remained sitting by the stone long after the wind and cold had driven the others into the mansion behind them.

Logan brushed away the drifted snow from the stone tablet and looked at it somberly. Charles had a quote inscribed on the tablet. It read, 'No greater love hath one man but that he giveth his life for another'. 

Moose read it too. "She gave her life to save you," he said quietly. "No greater love, indeed."

* * *

Dr. Amanda Greene looked up from the paper she was writing and took off her glasses as the Pomeranian yapped hysterically at the back door. "What's up, Buster? You have to go out?" She got up and opened the door beside her stove that led out to the back yard, but the little dog refused to go out. She closed the door, but the dog didn't stop barking. Finally, exasperated, she clipped the leash to the little dog's neck, slipped on a pair of boots and her coat, and took the dog out.

Buster yanked insistently on the leash, almost dragging her toward the river, barely a hundred yards from the river's edge. "Buster, no, don't go too close…" and her voice trailed off as she saw a huddled figure on the bank. She was about to turn back to the house, to call the police, when the figure moved. "Logan…" it said. 

Amanda dropped the leash, startled, and Buster ran up to the figure, licking it's face. When she came up she found a young woman, maybe in her mid-twenties, with long, thick, tangled black hair, lying on the stretch of sand between the water's edge and the snow-dusted grassy lawn. The girl stared glassily at the sky, mumbling incoherently, and Amanda was seized with a sudden stab of pity, which became more acute as she took in the girl's bruised, battered appearance. "Come on," she said, running an arm under the girl's arms and lifting her. She didn't weigh much. "Let's get you inside." She turned toward the house with the little dog running along behind.


End file.
